There are a number of people who
abandoned their former religion and accepted Islam. These people belong to
various races, countries, nationalities, colours and professional groups.
Forty-two [42] of these people were asked several questions, such as, “Why did
you become a Muslim?” “What are the aspects of Islam that you like best?” by
some magazines or societies, or by their own friends. Their answers were quite
clear and sincere. These noble people decided to embrace Islam after thinking
over the matter for a long time and studying the Islamic religion with
meticulous attention. Each and every one of their answers, which we have
compiled from various books and magazines and we will paraphrase in the
following passages, is of documentary value. There are many lessons to be taken
from these answers, and those who read them will once again feel in their
hearts the sublime nature of our religion.
These documents have been
arranged in an alphabetical order of the initial letters of the nationalities
to which our new Muslim brothers belong. These countries are:
America, Austria, Canada,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Malaya,
Poland, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Zanzibar.
(Muhammad Alexander Russel Webb was born in 1262[1846 C.E.], in
Hudson, United States of America. He studied in the university of New York. In
a short time hewas a very much loved and admired writer and columnist. He
published magazines named ‘St. Joseph Gazette’ and ‘Missouri Republican’. In
1887 he was posted as the American consul in the Philippines. After embracing
Islam,he thoroughly dedicated himself to the promulgation of Islam and presided
over the organization in the
United States. He
passed away in 1335 [1916 C.E.].)
I was asked by quite a number of
people why I, as a person who was born in the United States, a country with an
overwhelmingly numerous Christian population, and who listened to the preaches,
or, rather, foolish talks, made by Christian priests throughout his growing
years, changed my religion and became a Muslim. The brief account I gave them
on why I had chosen Islam as my guide in life: I became a Muslim because the
studies and observations I carried on indicated that men’s spiritual needs
could be filled only with the sound principles established by Islam. Even as a child
I had never had a disposition to completely dedicate myself to Christianity. By
the time I reached the adult age of twenty, I was completely defiant towards
the mystical and annoying church culture which interdicted everything in the
name of sin. Gradually I disengaged myself from the church, and finally
abandoned it for good. I had an inquisitive and curious character. I would
always search for causes and purposes for everything. I would anticipate
logical explanations for them. On the other hand, the explanations provided by
priests and other Christian men of religion did not satisfy me. Most of the
time, instead of giving satisfactory answers to my questions, they would
dismiss the matter with evasive prevarications such as, “We cannot understand these
things. They are divine secrets,” and “They are beyond the grasp of human
mind.” Upon this I decided to study, on the one hand, oriental religions, and
on the other hand, books written by famous philosophers. I read various works
on philosophy, such as those written by Mill[1], by Locke[2], by Kant[3], by Hegel[4], by Fichte[5], by Huxley[6], and others. The books written by these philosophers always dealt
with such subjects as protoplasms, atoms, molecules, and particles, and did not
even touch on reflections such as “What becomes of the human soul?” “Where does
the soul go after death?” “How should we discipline our souls in this world?”
The Islamic religion, on the other hand, treated the human subject not only
---------------------------------
[1] John Stuart Mill (1806-73), English thinker; On Liberty
[2] John Locke (1632-1704), English philosopher.
[3] Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), German philosopher; Critique of Pure Reason.
[4] Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), German thinker.
[5] Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814), German philosopher.
[6] Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), British writer; Brave New World.
within the corporeal areas, but also along the spiritual
extensions. Therefore, I chose Islam not because I had lost my way, or only
because Christianity had incurred my displeasure, or as a result of sudden
decision, but, on the contrary, after very minutely studying it and becoming thoroughly
convinced about its greatness, singularity, solemnity and perfection.
Islam is based on belief in the
existence and the unity of Allâhu ta’âlâ, entire submission to Him, which spontaneously entails
worshipping Him and thanking Him for His blessings. Islam enjoins fraternity,
goodness, and friendliness upon all the human race, and advises them to be
cleanly, spiritually, physically, verbally, and practically. Definitely, the
Islamic religion is the most perfect, the most superior and the most conclusive
of all the religions known to humanity so far.
Why did I accept Islam? For a
long time I had been greatly impressed by Islam’s clear logic and formal
simplicity, by the magnatizing attraction felt towards its mosques, by the
great solemnity and deep affection with which the adherents of that religion
had devoted themselves to their faith, by the profound respect and pure
sincerity in which Muslims all over the world had been prostrating themselves
simultaneously five times daily. However, all these things were short of
causing me to become a Muslim. Only after a thoroughgoing analysis of the
Islamic religion, which resulted in my exploring a myriad of beautiful and
useful aspects in it, did I become a Muslim. A solemn and, at the same time,
sentimental, attachment to life, [which was Muhammad’s ‘alaihis-salâm’ personal
approach]; a mutually consultative method in doing daily chores; a habitually
soft behaviour flavoured with mercy and compassion in social lives, indiscriminately;
charity for the poor; property rights, which women had been given for the first
time; all these things, which were only a few of the many other revolutions
that could only be evaluated as ‘the most tremendous’, and how aphoristical and
concise a language it is through which Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ expresses these
concepts! By cautioning, “Place your trust in Allâhu ta’âlâ; yet do not forget to
tie your camel!”,Muhammad
‘alaihis-salâm’ conveys also that Allâhu
ta’âlâ commands His born slaves to put their trust in Him
only after taking all sorts of necessary precautions. Then, contrary to
Europeans’ assertions, the Islamic religion is not a religion for those idlers
who expect everything from Allâhu ta’âlâ without doing anything for their part. The Islamic religion
commands everybody first to do their best and only then to put their trust in Allâhu ta’âlâ.
The justice which Islam rendered to people
of other religions was one of its aspects which had had a great impact on me.
Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ commands Muslims to be benign towards Christians and
Jews. Qur’ân al-kerîm acknowledges the
prophethoods of the other prophets as well, beginning with Âdam ‘alaihis-salâm’
and including Műsâ and Îsâ ‘alaihim-as-salâm’. This is an exalted sense of
faith and a great model of justice, which other religions do not possess. While
the believers of other religions are casting inconceivable aspersions on Islam,
Muslims are answering them favourably.
One of the most beautiful
aspects of Islam is that it has completely purified itself of idols. Whereas
pictures, icons and signs are still being worshipped in Christianity, things of
this nature do not exist in Islam. This is an indication of how pure and
unstained a religion Islam is.
The facts stated and taught by
Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’, the Messenger of Allâhu ta’âlâ, have reached our time without any interpolation. And the Qur’ân al-kerîm, which is the Word of
Allah, has been preserved in its pristine purity, exactly as it was revealed,
without losing anything from the limpidity it had in the time of Muhammad
‘alaihis-salâm’. The fabricated superstitions and legends with which Christians
have defiled the religion ofÎsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’ are not the case with Islam.
Of the determinants that
motivated me to become a Muslim, the last one was the fortitude and the will
power that I observed in Islam. Islam induced an overall cleanliness, not only
spiritually, but also physically. Examples of the features that make up this
superior nature are not to overload the stomach when eating, to fast for one
month every year, to be moderate in every respect, to be neither extravagant
nor parsimonious in spending money, etc. In an exquisite style, facts that
would guide humanity not only temporarily but also ever after were being
inculcated into individuals. I visited almost all of the Muslim countries. I
saw in person how all the Muslims in Istanbul, in Damascus, in Cairo, in
Algeria, in Morocco, and in the other Muslim cities observed all
these rules and thereby led a peaceful life. They did not need ornaments,
pictures, icons, candles, music, or other trivialities of the same sort to
initiate themselves into the life-style leading to the sympathy of Allâhu ta’âlâ. The sense of awareness of the
fact that they were the born slaves of Allâhu ta’âlâ and their acts of supplication before Him afforded them the
greatest source of spiritual peace, happiness and flavour.
The qualities of freedom and equity inherent
in the Islamic religion have always magnatized me towards it. Among Muslims, a
person occupying the highest rank position and the poorest member of the
society are equal before Allâhu ta’âlâ, and they
are merely two individuals in the general recognition of fraternity. Muslims
perform their acts of worship side by side in mosques. There are not any
special places allotted for the leadership.
Muslims hold the belief that
there is not a third person to act as an intermediary between Allâhu ta’âlâ and His born slave. The Islamic
acts of worship are performed between Allâhu ta’âlâ and the slave. They do not appeal to men of religion for the
forgiveness of their wrongdoings. Every Muslim is the only person responsible
for his personal behaviour.
The mutual fraternity among
Muslims has always been helpful in my personal life. This fraternity was one of
the factors whereby I was charmed towards Islam. I know that, wherever I go, a
Muslim brother of mine will help me and sympathize with me. All Muslims the
world over, of different races, colours and political views as they may be, are
brothers and they look on it as an obligation to help one another.
These are the causes for my
becoming a Muslim. I wonder if it could be possible to conceive of causes more
beautiful or more exalted than these?
In 1338 [1920 C.E.], I was in
the waiting-room of a doctor’s office where I had gone for a medical
examination, when I saw two magazines printed in London, namely ‘Orient Review’
and ‘African Times’. As I was skimming through them I read a
statement that said, “There is only one God,” which impressed me
deeply. Christianity dictated three gods, which we were compelled to believe
although we could never explain it to our own minds. From that time on, that
statement, “There is only one God,” never left my mind. This holy and sublime
belief, which Muslims bear in their hearts, is an invaluable treasure.
Now I grew more and more deeply interested
in Islam. By and by, I decided to become a Muslim. After embracing Islam I
assumed the name Salâhaddin. I believed in the truth that Islam is the truest
religion. For Islam is based on the fact that Allâhu
ta’âlâ does not have a partner and that Allah, alone, has the authority
to forgive sins. How compatible this law is with the laws of nature! In a
field, on a farm, in a village, in a city, in a school, in a government, in a
state and, in short, everywhere, there is one single ruler. Dualism has always
brought about separatism.
The second proof that showed me
the fact that Islam is the truest religion was that the Arabs, who had been
leading a completely barbarous life before Islam, had developed into the
world’s most civilized and the most powerful state in a very short time and
carried the most ideal concepts of love of mankind from the Arabian deserts all
the way up to Spain, and all this was owing to Islam. The Muslim Arabs had
found Arabia as a wilderness. And they cultivated it into a rose-garden. John
W. Draper (1226 [1811 C.E.]-1299
[1882 C.E.]), an honest historian, in his book ‘The Intellectual Development of
Europe’, enlarges on the extremely great and important part that Islam played
in the development of contemporary civilization, and adds, “Christian
historians, on account of the grudge they have been nursing against Islam, try
to cloak this truth and cannot seem to get themselves to acknowledge how
indebted Europeans are to Muslims.”
The following passage is (the
paraphrase of) an excerpt from Draper’s writings on how Muslims found Spain:
“Europeans of that time were
completely barbarians. Christianity had proved short of delivering them from
barbarism. They would still be looked on as wild people. They lived in filth.
Their heads were full with superstitions. They did not even have the ability to
think properly. They lived in roughly-made huts. A rush mat laid on the floor
or hanging on the wall was the sign of great wealth. Their food consisted of
vegetables like wild beans and carrots, some oats and, sometimes, even barks.
In the name
of garments, they wore untanned animal hides because they lasted
longer, and therefore they stank awfully.”
“Cleanliness was the very first thing that
Muslims taught them. Muslims washed five times daily, which caused these people
to wash at least once a day. Later on, they took the stinking, tattered,
lice-infested animal hides off their backs, dumped them, and gave them their
own garments, which had been made from textures woven with coloured threads.
They taught them how to cook, and how to eat. They built houses, mansions and
palaces in Spain. They established schools and hospitals. They instituted
universities, which in the course of time became sources of light illuminating
the entire world. They improved horticulture everywhere. The country was soon
awash with rose and flower gardens. Gaping in astonishment and admiration, the
uncivilized Europeans watched all these developments, and gradually began to
keep pace with the new civilization.”
Educating so wild a nation;
imbuing them with sentiments of civilization; rescuing them from the depths of
darkness, nescience and superstitions; all these inconceivably tremendous tasks
were accomplished by the Arabs owing only and only to the Islamic religion. For
the Islamic religion is the most genuine religion. Allâhu ta’âlâ helped them for their success.
The Islamic religion, commanded
by Allâhu ta’âlâ and taught
and publicized by Muhammad ‘alâihis-salâm’, and the Qur’ân al-kerîm, which is the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ, changed the course of the
world’s history and freed it from the fetters of darkness. Had it not been for
the Islamic religion, humanity would not have attained the present heights of
civilization, nor would knowledge and science be in such advanced levels today.
Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ states, “Even if knowledge is in China, (go and) acquire it.” This is the
Islamic religion which I accepted willingly.
It was
almost noon time. Dazed with the sweltering heat of the day, we were trudging
along a dusty road, when, from afar, a singularly mellifluous voice began to
caress our auditory senses. So rich a voice it was that the entire space seemed
to be sated
with it. As we walked past a
cluster of trees, a bewildering scene came into sight. It was such a scene that
we hardly believed what we saw. Mounted on a small, wooden tower, an elderly
Arab in an extremely clean long robe and wearing a white turban was performing
(calling) the azân (or adhân). As he performed the azân, he was in a trance,
almost completely isolated from the world, and in the presence of his Creator,
Owner. As if hypnotized by this noble sight, we halted, and then, slowly, sat
down on the ground. We did not know what the sounds and words reaching our ears
meant, yet they somehow moved us and instilled a mood of elation, relief into
our souls. Afterwards, we learned that the sweet words uttered by the Arab
meant, “Allâhu ta’âlâ is the greatest. There is
no god to be worshipped other than Allâhu ta’âlâ.”
All of a sudden, many people appeared around us. Till hardly a moment before,
however, we had seen no one around us. We did not know whence these people
came, and there was an expression of great deference and love on their faces.
There were people of all age-groups and classes among them. They were different
in their clothings, in their manners of walking, and in their appearances. Yet
they all had the same expression of earnestness, great dignity and, at the same
time, geniality on their faces. The number of comers increased incessantly, so
that we felt as if the process of their increasing would never come to an end.
At last the comers assembled. They all took off their shoes and clogs and stood
in rows. To our great amazement, no segregation of any sort was observed in the
formation of the lines. White people, yellow people, black people, rich people,
poor people, tradesmen, civil servants, workers stood side by side without any
discrimination between their races or ranks, and performed their worship
together.
I admired so many different
people’s brotherly coming together. It is three years now since I saw that
sublime scene for the first time. In the meantime, I began to gather
information about that lofty religion which brought people so closely together.
The information that I collected about Islam brought me all the closer to this
religion. Muslims believed in one Allah and professed that men were not sinful
by birth, which was quite contrary to the Christian inculcation. They looked on
them only as born slaves of Allâhu ta’âlâ, displayed profound compassion towards them, and wished them to
abide by the right path and thus lead a comfortable, peaceful and happy life.
Whereas in Christianity even an evil thought was deemed as a sin, Muslims
defined
sin only as a result of disobeying Allâhu ta’âlâ
or violating the rights of born slaves, and acknowledged man free as to his
thoughts. According to the Islamic religion, man was responsible “only for what
he has done.”
For the reasons I have cited above, I
accepted Islam willingly. Despite the three years’ time since, I sometimes
dream of the Arab muazzin’s touching and effective voice and multifarious
people’s running from all directions and standing in lines. It is a doubtless
fact that these people, who prostrate themselves altogether and
indiscriminately, are doing so sincerely to worship Allâhu
ta’âlâ.
Haqq ta’âlâ avenges Himself on the slave through the slave,
In the ignorant’s
eyes the avenger is the poor slave.
Everything belongs
to the Creator, the slave’s a mere tool,
Without the
Creator’s command you cannot move a leaf!
As the
Spring’s mellow, warm hand thaws out the earth after an awfully frigid winter,
likewise Islam had a similar effect on me. It warmed my heart and clothed me
with a new and lovely dress of knowledge. How beautiful, how true, and how logical
Islam’s teachings are! How clear, how genuine, and how charming a word it is to
say that “Allâhu ta’âlâ is one, and Muhammad
‘alaihis-salâm’ is His Messenger.” How could one ever compare it with the
unbelievable, unintelligible Christian credo which imposes the absurdity of
“Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit”? In contrast with these formidable, fearful
and never satisfactory tenets of Christianity, this simple and logical belief
draws you towards itself. Islam is an undefiled heavenly religion. Despite the
centuries that have elapsed since its advent, it answers all the material and
immaterial needs of humanity, not only today, but also forever. For instance,
Islam clearly states that men are equal and that before Allâhu ta’âlâ there is no difterence of rank and position among
men, and it enforces this equality in actual life. The Christian churches
profess the same equality, yet there are various echelons among them, such as
priests of different ranks, archdeacons, deacons, bishops, and many other ecclesiastics.
These people intervene between Allâhu ta’âlâ and the slave and use the name of Allâhu ta’âlâ for their personal advantages. In Islam,
on the other hand, no one can intervene between Allâhu
ta’âlâ and the slave. Allâhu ta’âlâ
communicates His commandments through the Qur’ân
al-kerîm to His slaves. In the following lines,I will quote a
commandment of Allâhu ta’âlâ. It is only an
example. This example shows very explicitly how simple and clear the
commandments are.
The two hundred and sixty-seventh
âyat of Baqara sűra purports: “O ye who believe! Give of the good things
which ye have (honourably) earned, and of the fruits of the earthwhich We have
produced for you, and do not even aim atgetting anything which is bad, in order
that out of it ye may give away something, when ye yourselves would not receive
it except with closed eyes. And know that
Allâhu ta’âlâ is free of all wants,
and worthy of all praise.” (2-267) As I read and
learned these profound and beautiful commandments of the Qur’ân al-kerîm, my soul attained peace
and I embraced Islam willingly.
Why did I become a Muslim?
Let me tell you sincerely that I
became a Muslim without even noticing it myself. For, at a very young age I had
already completely lost my confidence in Christianity and had begun to feel
apathy towards the Christian religion. I was curious about many religious
facts. I was disinclined to believe blindly the creed they were trying to teach
me. Why were there three gods? Why had we all come to this world sinful, and
why did we have to expiate it? Why could we invoke Allâhu ta’âlâ only through a priest? And what
were the meanings of all these various signs that we were being shown and the
miracles that we were being told? Whenever I asked these questions to the
teaching priests, they would become angry and answer, “You cannot inquire about
the inner natures of the church’s teachings. They are secret. All you have to
do is to believe them.” And this was another thing that I would never
understand. How could one believe something whose essence one did not know?
However, in those days I did not dare divulge these thoughts of mine. I am sure
that many of
today’s so-called Christians are of the same opinion as I was;
they do not believe most of the religious teachings imposed on them, yet they
are afraid to disclose it. The older I became the farther away did I feel from
Christianity, finally breaking away from the church once and for all and
beginning to wonder whether there was a religion that taught “to worship one
single God.” My entire conscience and heart told me that there was only one
God. Then, when I looked around, the events showed me how meaningless the
unintelligible miracles that priests had been trying to teach us, and the
absurd stories of saints they had been telling us, were. Didn’t everything on
the earth, human beings, beasts, forests, mountains, seas, trees, flowers
indicate that a great Creator had created them? Wasn’t a newly born baby a
miracle in itself? On the other hand, the church was striving to indoctrinate
the people with the preposterous belief that every newly born baby was a
wretched, sinful creature. No, this was impossible, a lie. Every newly born
child was an innocent slave, a creature of Allâhu ta’âlâ. It was a miracle, and I believed only in Allah and in the
miracles He created.
Nothing in the world was
inherently sinful, dirty, or ugly. I was of this opinion, when one day my
daughter came home with a book written about Islam. My daughter and I sat
together and read the book with great attention. O my Allah, the book said
exactly as I had been thinking. Islam announced that there is one Allah and
informed that people are born as innocent creatures. Until that time I had been
entirely ignorant of Islam. In schools Islam was an object of derision. We had
been taught that that religion was false and absurd and infused one with sloth,
and that Muslims would go to Hell. Upon reading the book, I was plunged into
thoughts. To acquire more detailed information about Islam, I visited Muslims
living in my town. The Muslims I found opened my eyes. The answers they gave to
my questions were so logical that I began to believe that Islam was not a
concocted religion as our priests had been asserting, but a true religion of Allâhu ta’âlâ. My daughter and I read many
other books written about Islam, were fully convinced as to its sublimeness and
veracity, and eventually embraced Islam, both of us. I adopted the name
‘Rashîda’, and my daughter chose ‘Mahműda’ as her new name.
As for the second question that
you ask me: “What aspect of Islam do you like best?” Here is my answer:
What I like best about Islam is
the nature of its prayers. In Christianity prayers are said in order to ask for
worldly blessings such as wealth, position and honour from Allâhu ta’âlâ through Îsâ ‘alaihis-salâm’.
Muslims, in contrast, express their gratitude to Allâhu
ta’âlâ and they know that as long as they abide by their
religion and obey the commandments of Allâhu ta’âlâ, Allâhu ta’âlâ will give them whatever they need without them asking for it.
(Weiss was born in 1318 [A.D. 1900] in the Lvov city ofAustria [in Poland today], visited Arabic
countries as a newspaper correspondent when he was twenty-two years old,
admired and professed the Islamic religion, then visited all the Islamic
countries, including India and Afghanistan, and published his impressions in
‘Frankfurter Zeitung’, one of the greatest newspapers worldover. Weiss worked as
the publication director for Frankfurter Zeitungfor some time, then, after
Pakistan’s winning its strugglefor liberation, he went to Pakistan with a view
to cooperating with that country’s government in the establishment of a system
of a religious education, and later he was sent to the United States Center to
representPakistan. He has two books, one entitled ‘Islam at Cross-Roads’, and
the other ‘The Way Leading to Mecca’. Recently he has rendered the Qur’ân al-kerîm into English. His
attempt to write a tafsîr (translation of Qur’ân al-kerîm) without the indispensably required background
in the basic Islamic sciences indicates that he is not in the Madh-hab of Ahl
as-sunna and that, consequently, his tafsîrs and other(religious) writings may
be harmful. Wahhâbîs and othergroups outside (the right way guided by the four) Madh-habs present this
ignorant heretic as an Islamic scholar.)
The
newspapers for which I worked as a correspondent and writer sent me to Asia and
Africa in the capacity of ‘special correspondent’ in 1922. In the beginning, my
relations with the Muslims were no more than ordinary relations between two
parties of foreigners. However, my long stay in the Islamic countries enabled
me to know the Muslims more closely, which in
turn made me realize that they had
been looking at the world and the events taking place in the world from angles
quite dissimilar to those of Europeans. I must acknowledge that their extremely
dignified and composed attitude towards the events, and their approach that was
much more humanistic than our own, began to stir up my interest. I was from a
fanatical Catholic family. Throughout my childhood I had been inculcated with
the belief that Muslims were irreligious people worshipping the devil. When I
came into contact with Muslims I realized that they had been lying to me and I
decided to study the Islamic religion. I acquired a number of books written on
this subject. When I began to read these books with close attention, I saw in
amazement how pure and how valuable a religion it was. Yet the manners and
behaviours of some Muslims I had been in contact with did not conform to the
Islamic principles that I was reading about. First of all, Islam dictated
cleanliness, open heartedness, brotherhood, compassion, faithfulness, peace and
salvation and, rejecting the Christian doctrine that “men are ever sinful,” it
substituted it with quite an opposite belief which tolerated “all sorts of
worldly pleasures with the proviso that they should not cost someone else’s
harm and that they should not overflow the free area defined by Islam.”
However, I also met some dirty and mendacious Muslims. To understand the matter
better, I began to run an experiment on it, putting myself in the place of a
Muslim and adapting myself to the principles I had been reading in the books,
and thus examining Islam from within. I came up with the conclusion that the
main reason for the increasing degeneration and decline of the Islamic world,
which was already on the brink of a collapse, was Muslims’ becoming
increasingly indifferent towards their religion. As long as Muslims preserved
their perfection as true Muslims, they always made progress; and a downfall
began the very moment they relaxed their grips of Islam. In actual fact, Islam
possesses all the qualifications required for a country’s or a nation’s
progress. It contains all the essentials of civilization. The Islamic religion
is both extremely scientific and very practical. The principles it lays down
are completely logical, intelligible to everybody, and do not contain one
single element that would run counter to knowledge, to science, or to human
nature. There is nothing unnecessary in it. The grotesque passages, the
sophistries, and the superstitious mysticisms, which are the common properties
of other religious books, do not exist in Islam. I discussed these
subjects with most Muslims and
castigated
them, saying, “Why don’t you adhere more tightly to this beautiful religion of
yours? Why don’t you hold fast to it with both hands?” Eventually, in 1344
[A.D. 1926], as I was discussing these matters with a governor in Afghanistan,
he said to me, “You have already become a Muslim without you yourself noticing
it. Only a true Muslim would defend Islam as earnestly as you are doing now.”
Upon these words of the governor’s a lightning flashed in my brain. When I was
back home I plunged into deep thoughts, finally saying to myself, “Yes, I am a
Muslim now.” Presently I pronounced the statement called Kalima-i-sahâdat.[1] I have been a Muslim ever since.
You ask me, “What aspect of
Islam attracted you most?” I cannot answer this question, for Islam has
penetrated and invaded my entire heart. There is not a specific aspect,
therefore, which affected me more than the others did. Everything I had not found
in Christianity I found in Islam. I cannot tell what principle of Islam I feel
closer to me. I admire each and every one of its principles and essentials.
Islam is a gorgeous monument. It is impossible to separate any of its parts
from its entirety. All its parts are piveted, clenched on one another in a
certain order. There is a tremendous harmony among the parts. There is not a
single part missing. Each and every one of its parts is in its proper place.
Perhaps it was this extremely admirable order which attached me to the Islamic
religion. No. What attached me to the Islamic religion was the love I had for
it. You know, love is composed of various things: Desire, loneliness, ambition,
elevation, zeal for progress and improvement, our weaknesses mixed with our
strength and power, the need for someone to help and protect us, and the like.
So I embraced Islam with all my heart and love, and it settled in my heart so
as to never leave there again.
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[1] The statement called Kalima-i-sahâdat is: “Ash-hadu an-lâ-ilâha il’l’Allah, wa ash-hadu an-na Muhammadan ’abduhu wa Rasűluhu,” which means, “I testify to the fact that there is no god but Allah, and I testify, again, that Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’ is His born slave and Messenger.” Every Muslim has to make this statement at least once in his lifetime and has to believe in its meaning.