Why I
Chose Islam (Based On A True Story): Born To Staunch
Catholic Christian Family
Writers Articles And Opinions
Islamic Rulings -
Living Shariah Verdicts
Islamic Questions & Answers
By M. Emery, Thomas
Introduction
O seeker of truth, if you really seek
the truth put aside all preconceived notions, and open
your heart…do not let others judge or make a decision
for you. This being said, I would like to share with
you this beautiful account of a man’s journey to the
truth…I believe it be best if he narrates his account
to us himself, so I will leave you with Mr. Thomas…
ميحرلا نحمرلا للها مسب
I begin with the name of Allah, the
Most Merciful, the Most Gracious
I was born to staunch Catholic
Christian parents. Even from my youngest days, my
father sometimes took me along with him when he went
to preach, it was quite obvious
that he wanted me to succeed him in his profession.
By the time I reached grade twelve, I could preach the
Gospels in my own way. In college, I often met my
Protestant classmates and discussed the differences in
our faiths and the performance of rituals.
By the time I completed the first year
in college, I was sufficiently grounded in the
knowledge of the Christian Faith as held by the
Catholic Church. I was given a scholarship
from the Church funds and in return for the help I
received, I was required to receive special coaching
in understanding parts of the Holy Book, under the
Chief Priest of the Church who loved to teach me very
much and was very intimately attached to me.
Having appeared in the first group for
my intermediate course I used to sit working at his
subjects till late at night. One night when all were
asleep and I was absorbed in my
studies an idea suddenly struck my mind to examine the
doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the basic formula of the
Christian Faith. The question how god exists in three
persons, and yet has a single divine nature, a single
will and be of one substance arose in my mind.
My failure to reconcile my belief in
the Trinity with the reasoning of the science of
logic, created a mental restlessness
in me. Days passed on and many a time, I thought of
asking my father to help me in solving the problem
which puzzled my mind but I knew that my father
would never appreciate the least doubt in the dogmatic
belief of the Catholic School. However, one day when I
found my father in a happy mood and asked him to
explain the Holy Trinity…he finally said:
“In matters of faith one has to stop
reasoning…this doctrine is beyond the grasp of human
reason. One should believe in the doctrine only by
one’s heart and mind!”
This reply from my father upset me to
a great extent…all my thinking
got centered in the question which had become a
definite problem to puzzle my mind further
and I wondered saying:
“Is this the
foundation upon which the huge edifice of the
Christian faith is built? Is the basis of my faith
only a matter of blind following of some dictated
belief which can never stand reasoning or the
independent scrutiny by the dispassionate and impartial
arguments from the clean conscience?”
I became extremely worried and made up
my mind to blindly believe in the Trinity.
One day one of our senior lecturers
was sitting alone in his room and I entered with his
permission and asked him if he could help me to solve
something which to me was a perplexing problem. He
very kindly asked me what it was. I asked him to
explain to me how God, a single being, can exist
simultaneously as three distinct persons: the Father,
the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit?!
The senior lecturer smiled and said:
“Is it that you do not like my stay in this college?”
I asked him: “Why sir?” He said: “What do you think
the college authorities who are staunch Catholics will
do with me, if someone informs
them that I discuss in my private room things opposed
to the Christian faith in general? Will they keep me
on the staff of the College any longer? If you want to
discuss anything here, you must
confine your discussion to the subject of your studies
in the College!”
Thereafter, I made an appointment with
him to see him in his house.
On Sunday when I met the senior
lecturer he first asked me as to what made me inquire
into the Doctrine of Trinity. I
said that I wanted to know how far the doctrine stood
to reasoning.
He smiled and said, “Why don’t you ask
any one of our priests?”
I said: “I have asked them but they
say it is a matter of belief or faith and it should
not be subjected to any logic or philosophy. This has
upset me. This has raised the question in me, if what
I believe in is unreasonable and illogical, why should
I subject myself to any blind following?
Is God so unjust to expect man to believe in a doctrine
about Himself which no human brain can ever reasonably
conceive? I request you, Sir, to somehow give me some
method of arguing out the possibility of such existence
as the doctrine of Trinity wants us to believe in!”
The senior lecturer smiled and said:
‘Dear Thomas, suppose you want me to prove by some
mathematical formula how water can remain water and
the same time be fire, or how a stone can be a stone
and at the same time be water too, how can I do it? I
do not think any sensible man on earth can ever
conceive such a possibility…how
the Ever living God who being the Ever living, can
also at the same time be a mortal! (i.e. be a man to
suffer death at the hands of the other mortals?) And
how the same mortal being at the same time be the
Absolute Immortal God? It is a problem which our
priests want us to believe and we have to merely
believe in it and none has any choice of even
questioning the practicability of this inconceivable
dogma.’
He went on saying: “The fact is when
God, Whom we believe as One, is absolutely One, it
means that God is singularly One in natural essence of
His existence, free from any different or variant
factors having anything to do with His pure or
Absolute Unity to justify His being the Absolute One,
owing an indivisible existence, by Himself. Division
suggests that the One is not an Absolute
One but a compound of some variants and that which is
a composed being can never really be One in the true
meaning of Oneness. And certainly the one dependent
in its existence upon its different components can
never be independent in its action, whereas God is the
Absolute One, independently Omnipotent in His Will and
His action.
Besides how can any three which are
three separate beings, with
three variations justify being three separate entities,
remain three separately individual native properties
differentiating them from each other, and become
conceivably the absolute indivisible one, without the
least variation in the essential oneness?
An absolute one must be totally
independent in its existence,
Mr. Thomas…it is impossible to reason out the doctrine
of the Holy Trinity for it is an inconceivable human
riddle!”
He continued: ‘The only thing is that
we Christians are shut out of the vast sources of
knowledge about the truth and of the higher factor in
matters of religion which are available outside our
own fold, by damning every nonChristian
as the Devil’s work. We Christians, Mr. Thomas,
in our madness to swell up our ranks have played such
a disgraceful role that a scholar like Sir Dennison
Ross had to helplessly disclose truth
about this in his foreword to the translation of the
Quran by George Sale.”
I was amazed to hear the arguments of
the senior lecturer who was
himself known as a Catholic, and at the same time I
was very much encouraged to know that my doubt about
the unreasonableness of the doctrine of Trinity
was something which had made a highly educated and
enlightened mind like the senior lecturer of Mathematics
to enquire into it. I was much benefited by the discussion
with the senior lecturer for I came to know arguments
justifying the doubt created in my mind.
My study of the matter in the ‘Islamic
Literature’ and the translation of the Quran opened my
eyes to many great and very important factors that
effect human life on earth. Once I visited the senior
lecturer in his house and to my amazement I found him
possessing a great amount of literature on Islam!
I further asked him: “May I know sir,
if you have embraced the faith
of the Muslims?”
He replied: “Do not worry yourself
about my personal choice!”
I took the copy of the translation of
the Quran by George Sale and read the introduction by
Sir E. Dennison Ross. The introduction needs to be
read with special attention.
Sir Ross said:
“For many centuries the acquaintance
which the majority of Europeans
possessed of Mohammedanism was based almost entirely
on the distorted reports of fanatical
Christians which led to the discrimination of a multitude
of gross calumnies. What was good in Mohammedanism
was entirely ignored and what was not good in the eyes
of Europe was exaggerated or misinterpreted. The unity
of God and the simplicity of his creed was probably a
more potent factor in the spread of Islam than the
sword of the ghaziz.”
(G. Sale’s
translation of the Koran – Introduction)
This statement of the great Christian
scholar of international
repute, created in me the thirst to know the original
teachings of Islam especially about the Islamic concept
of God.
About four years passed away and by
this time I knew the contents of the Quran. Many
things had aroused my attention. I had discussed many
doubtful points with the senior lecturer whom I found
to have read the Quran several times with a better and
more critical view. I was now longing to meet some
Muslim scholar to cross examine
him about certain doubts about the Islamic Faith.
Once I thought of Hinduism but what I
saw daily with my own eyes, curses of untouchability
and the reservations of the
caste system prevalent before us and besides
everything else, the idol worship and the observance
of innumerable rituals did not prompt me to take up
any enquiry into its tenets. I could never understand
the superiority exclusively and
arbitrarily claimed for the members of certain castes,
simply because they had accidentally
been born in those folds. I had seen with my own eyes
how the people belonging to certain castes are
imagined as lower in the society and are treated as
the untouchables, not allowed even to enter into the
Hindu Temples. I had seen these poor souls being
prohibited even to take drinking water from the wells
reserved for the superior classes.
The havoc in the social life played by
Hinduism dividing humanity into
castes and subcastes and the
unreasonable superiority of one
caste over the other is itself so repulsive that no
one would like to take any trouble of executing any
studies about the doctrines of that faith.
While resenting the caste system and
the sectarian segregation in
the Hindu folds, I was automatically reminded
of the similar restrictions amongst Christians. I
asked myself:
“Why criticize other people and their
beliefs when the religion which I myself belong to,
has in it the sectarian segregation as well? Are not
Churches in Christendom owned exclusively for the
members of the particular sects? Are there not
churches belonging to a particular sect which cannot
be used by the people of the other sect? Has not
Christianity failed to unite mankind into one human
society? Did Jesus preach all these differences and
dissensions which we the Christians have innovated? Is
it not then that we are far away from the original
objects of the Mission of Jesus Christ?”
Against the irreconcilable differences
and the innumerable dissensions
of the social order in the very folds of Hinduism and
Christianity, I was very much impressed by the genuine
and real brotherhood practiced day and night among the
Muslims. I found that a Muslim Mosque is a Mosque
belonging to everyone who calls himself a Muslim and
that there is no reservation of seats in the Mosque. I
saw with my own eyes, Muslims of all ranks, all social
and economical status of different complexions of
various nationalities all standing in one row, turning
towards one direction, praying to one God in one language,
and after the prayer shaking hands with one another.
Brotherhood or social equality claimed more in theory
by other schools of thought in the world; I found it
to be an ever experienced and a living reality in the
daily life of the Islamic folds.
One day I was informed by the senior
lecturer who by this time had become a close friend of
mine that a Muslim scholar was
going to deliver some talks in English on the life of
the Prophet of Islam in a hall near the big Mosque of
my town. My senior lecturer and I both attended
the talks and met the lecturer who was an old friend
of my senior lecturer. We talked with the lecturer
about several important topics.
During my meeting with the Muslim
lecturer I asked him if he would kindly answer some
questions for my own information. He said: “I will
most willingly answer your questions.”
I put forward the following questions
which he very cheerfully answered: “What proof have
you besides the Quran to establish that Muhammad was
truly a Prophet of God?”
He answered: “Have you your Bible with
you?” I said: “Yes.”
He took the following verses and read
them to me one after the other:
The Acts 3, Verses 22: “For
Moses truly said unto the fathers, a prophet shall the
Lord your god raise unto you of your brethren, like
unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he
shall say unto you.” 23: “And it shall come to pass
that every soul which will not hear the Prophet shall
be destroyed from among the people.” 24: “Yea! And all
the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after,
as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of
these days.”
The Acts 7: Verses 37: “This is
that Moses, who said unto the children of Israel, a
Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you your
brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.”
John 14:
“Jesus says: 16: ‘I
will pray the Father, and he shall give another
comforter – that he may abide with you forever.’”
26: “Nevertheless I tell you the
truth: it is expedient for you that I go away, for if
I go not away, the comforter will not come unto you,
but if I depart I will send him unto you.”
16: “I have yet many things to say
unto you, but ye can not bear them now.”
16: “Howbeit, when he the Spirit of
Truth, is come, he will guide you unto all truth for
he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall
hear, that shall he speak; he will show you things to
come.”
I read the passages which I had
already gone through several times before, but this
time the perfect confidence with which the lecturer
asked me to read the verse from my own sacred
scriptures in support of his claim, threw a new light
upon them for me to understand the matter
dispassionately. Yet I replied: “But the prophecy is
about the advent of Jesus!” He smiled and said: “Read
the verse again! Does not the verse say that God will
raise a Prophet like unto Moses i.e. he will be a man
born of a father and a mother as was born Moses;
whereas Jesus was born only of a mother. Besides the
Prophet promised by God must be a man like Moses but
you yourself call Jesus as the son of God! Moses was a
lawgiving Prophet and the one like him must be a lawgiver,
whereas Jesus was only a lawabider,
following the law of the Ten Commandments already
introduced through Moses. Besides
one must betray his common sense as well as his
learning to say that I and He the two different
persons, i.e. the First and the Third person mean the
same, or the one who departs prophesying about the
advent of some one else, to be one and the same.”
The argument was quite reasonable.
Then I asked the lecturer: “Do you not believe in
Jesus as the son of God? Cannot Jesus be God himself
in the form of a man?” The lecturer smiled and very
cheerfully replied: “Can there be a son to anyone
without a wife, my friend? Can anyone who believes in
the sonship of Jesus, at the same time sensibly
imagine Virgin Mary to have been used by God as a
wife? Let us seek protection of God against any such
devilish straying of our minds. Sonship if used in the
Bible can be only to mean a
creature or the one who has received
life from God. Otherwise, what do you say about Jesus
addressing himself as a son of man… “The son of
man is come eating and drinking and ye say, behold a
gluttonous man, and a wine bibber a friend of
publicans and sinners.” (St. Luke 7:34)
“The son of man be ashamed.”
(Luke 9:26)
“Saying the son of the man must be
delivered into the hands of sinful men.” (Luke
24)
“The son of man shall give unto you.”
(John 6:27)
Jesus addressed God as his father and
also as our father which means that God is taken as
the father of Jesus as much as He is the father (or
the creator) of any of us, and hence Jesus’ sonship
can mean in the sense of creature of god, the term
‘son of god’ used by Jesus can be only in sense of
‘servant of god’ – as Jesus refers to himself as god’s
servant. This fact is testified by the verses by which
every prophet of God from Adam has been termed as the
son of God in Luke 3rd chapter in verses from 23 to
30. Jesus is called as the son of Joseph and the
genealogy of Jospeh is traced to Adam and Adam is
called the son of God. Read the 30th verse of the same
chapter: “Which was the son of Enos, which was
the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was
the son of God.” (Luke 3:30)
These ready answers from the Bible
created a very deep impression upon my mind about the
amount of comparative study the
Muslims do and how strong and reasonable
they are in their faith about the Oneness of God.
I asked the lecturer: “Do you believe
in the Holy Bible as a Heavenly Book or not?” In reply
to my question the lecturer requested me to answer the
following questions:
His Questions:
My Answers:
Is the Bible which is in your hands,
the book which Jesus wrote as a scripture revealed by
God?
“No.”
Did Jesus order or desire at any time
in his life to write anything on his behalf?
“No”
Was the Bible which is in your hands,
written during the life time of Jesus?
“No”
Was the Bible which is in your hands
today written immediately after the departure
of Jesus?
“No”
Then he said: “Please read p. 17 in
the “Founder of Christianity and his Religion”
published by the Christian
Literature Society, Madras. It is said in the book:
“The
whole Bible contains sixty six books written by forty
different authors over a space of about fifteen centuries.”
It is clearly said in the book that: JESUS CHRIST
HIMSELF WROTE NOTHING. Oral teaching was for several
years, the only means employed in the spread of
Christianity. It was for the guidance of those young
converts that the earliest writings of the new Testament
were composed.”
The same book further discloses that:
“They were probably written about Twenty years
after the death of Christ.”
On pg. 18 it is stated:
“The Gospels do not
give a complete history of the
life of Christ. They are rather memoirs.”
I said: “But the Bible is the word of
god inspired and written by the disciples of Jesus!”
He again smiled and said: “Mr. Thomas, if the Bible is
the Book of the Disciples and
of Jesus, how would you account for the differences
in the Book, if it is an inspired word of God…does not
the Catholic Bible contain some books which the
Protestant version does not?”
Have you read what Mr. Wilson says
about the Bible, in the introduction to the ‘Diaglot’
– published by the Watch Tower Society?
“If it has not been
published by kingly authority it would not now be
venerated by English and
American Protestants, although it had come direct
from God. It has been convicted of containing over
20,000 errors! Nearly 700 Greek Mss are not known and
some of them are very ancient whereas the translator
of the common version had only the advantage of some 8
Mss none of which was earlier than the tenth century.”
Is not the Bible based upon 8
manuscripts…whereas there are 700 manuscripts now
available? If what is contained
in all such manuscripts is also the inspired word of
god, why were these manuscripts left away? In view of
all these facts brought to your light, if you still
believe in the Bible as the inspired word of God, you
may do so but you can’t expect the whole world to do
it. If you make a serious and an impartial study of
the Old and the New Testaments you will find in them
the amount of blasphemies which
the Jewish mind has fabricated against Lot, David,
Noah, and Abraham who were the Holy Apostles of God,
viz:
“And Noah began to be a husbandman and
he planted a vineyard.”
“And he drank of the vine, and was
drunken; and he was uncovered within this tent.”
“And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw
the nakedness of his father and told his two brethren
about it.”
“And Shem and Japheth took a garment
and laid it upon their father, and their faces were
backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.”
(Gen: 10:123)
Lot committing adultery with his own
two daughters (Gen: 19:3038)
David taking possession of his
neighbor’s wife (II Sam 11:4)
I asked, “What? Do you Muslims believe
in the prophet’s of god other than Muhammad to be
totally sinless and holy?”
He answered me by reciting to me the
following verses from the Quran:
Say
(O Muslims), We believe in Allah, and that which has
been revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and
Jacob and the Tribes and that which has been given to
Moses and Jesus, and that which has been given to the
Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction
between any of them. And we submit to Allah.
(2:136)
The
Messenger of God believed in what had been revealed to
him from his Lord, and so do the believers
(i.e. Muslims) they all believe in Allah and His
Angels, His Books (the different holy scriptures)
and His Messengers; we make no difference between any
of His Messengers.
(2:285)
The above verses of the Holy Quran
bear clear testimony to the
fact that, as one of the fundamentals of his faith,
every Muslim has to believe not only in the Holy
Prophet Muhammad, but in all the other Prophets and
Messengers as truthful and holy and should not make
any distinction between them. The following verse of
the Holy Quran informs us of the fact that Prophets
were raised by God, among all nations in all parts of
the earth.
There
is not a nation but a warner has gone among them.
(35:24)
It convinced me that Islam, alone, is
an all comprehensive faith
which recognizes all other religions and which
contains in it a perfectly harmonious integration of
all the good, found partly in the other religious
orders of the world. The sacred book of Islam i.e. the
Holy Quran is the final exposition of the Divine
Truth. The limitation of the human mind of the
different ages, did not allow even Prophet like Jesus
to speak out the whole truth. Jesus had to depart with
many things yet to be told to his people. (John
16:14). Jesus had to tell his people to wait until
the advent of the spirit of truth to disclose the
whole of the truth. (John 16:13)
I was further impressed by the
universal aspect of the religion of Islam. Every
answer from the lecturer was with an unchallengeable
authority and with an unbreakable
argument. I was awakened to differentiate between
genuine truth and the fabrications of falsehood and to
know many new factors to which I was blind all those
years. But I did not know how to reconcile the dawn of
true knowledge of truth with my original blind
dogmatic belief and my belonging to the Christian
faith any longer. I wanted to find out some failure on
the part of the lecturer to
answer satisfactorily some question or the other, so
that I may have some excuse, be that even a false one,
to maintain my position in the Christian faith.
The lecturer continued after some time
with the question: “Shall I ask
you something if you do not mind answering
it for my information?” I said: “Yes.” He asked: “Do
you think Jesus to be a son of God or God himself?” I
said: “Jesus is God himself in the form of His son.”
He said: “Can you ever conceive anyone
to be the immortal god and at
the same time be a mortal (man) to be caught in the
hands of other mortals to suffer death? Can anything
be high and at the same time low, black, and at the
same time white? Can there be darkness and the same
time light? What philosophy is this?”
The lecturer continued saying: “Do you
ever consider that there is one other question
confronting the doctrine of the Trinity which needs to
be answered by every Trinitarian
that if any three different beings which are three
different entities, are also at the same time One,
with absolute unity in all the
perfect sense or meaning of Oneness,
what is the common control which makes them remain
three and also be one at one and the same time? If
there be any factor of such a wonderful and inconceivable
phenomena causing this amazing effect, then that
supreme causative power, which controls the number and
the unity, will alone be the Omnipotent God and not
any one of the three which are only the controlled components.
Besides there arises another problematic question
which a believer in the Trinity will have to answer
i.e. as to who is it that controls or determines the
splitting of one into three different others, to be
neither more nor less in number? There must be some
cause for this controlled
effect and that the causative factor acting supreme
over three will be the Omnipotent God and not any of
the three which will only be the effect of the Supreme
controlling cause.
Similarly, it will raise the question,
what is the causative power
which effects the three to be only one when joining
together rather than divided into many groups of
beings and, if there be any such cause, that supreme
controlling cause will be the
omnipotent god, not any of the three who will only be
the subservient ones. Under any circumstances no
sensible man can ever reasonably believe
in any effect whatsoever without some causative factor
effecting it.
However, the Holy Trinity is only a
problematic doctrine created by
the Christian Church which no logical reasoning can
ever prove true.
I had to helplessly agree to the views
of the lecturer for I could not now reasonably believe
in the existence of anything being itself and at the
same time being its own opposite.
“I would like you Mr. Thomas,” said
the lecturer “to ponder a little over How the belief
of Jesus being God Himself or the son of God,
coincides with the fact that he was so terrified at
the impending crucifixion that he shouted: “Eli,
Eli, Lama Sabachtani?” (Meaning: My God, My
God, has thou forsaken me?) (Ma
hew
27:46)
“What philosophy is that? If Jesus was
God Himself, does it mean that God was forsaken by God
Himself and can that be God who felt hopeless and
shouted to be rescued?”
“Your Bible itself Mr. Thomas,
reported that the son of God was forsaken by his
father (god) in which case the forsaken son
automatically and quite naturally forfeits his
personal merits as a son and his relationship of being
a son to his father. What do you say? Of what
profitable use can the attachment to a forsaken son
be? Mr. Thomas, please tell me!”
I was dumbstruck – and I did not know
what to say and what to do with the faith I already
possessed as a staunch Christian.
“Besides,” the lecturer continued: “Do
you think Jesus to be God himself when he falls down
crying, praying to someone else to remove the cup of
death by crucifixion?”
I asked: “Alright, sir, how do you
reconcile the violence used by the Prophet of Islam to
his being an Apostle of God?!”
Immediately came the reply from the
lecturer: “Please, Mr. Thomas, quote a single instance
from the whole life story of the Holy Prophet Muhammad
to show that he has ever committed any unprovoked
aggression or any single instance of his taking the
least initiative in attacking
any single soul. Each expedition of a battle he led or
he allowed was only in selfdefense!
The Bible does not preach selfdefense.
The Bible preaches selfsurrender
to the extent of handing over everything in one’s
possession when anything which was in one’s hand had
been taken away by any aggressor. Does any Christian
follow this?”
“Apart from the political history of
the Christian nations of
Europe, do you not remember the inhuman methods
employed by Christendom to spread its faith?”
I was ashamed to hear what has been
reported and I have to listen quietly to the records
of the disgraceful conduct of the Christians. I at
last ventured to ask one more question. “There is the
doctrine of atonement of expiation
of sins of men through the blood of Jesus. Jesus
having paid the price of the sins of man, i.e. he who
believes in Jesus is cleansed
and saved… have you any such accommodation in Islam?
The lecturer smiled and replied: “My
friend, the greatest of God’s
gifts to man is common sense. If man forfeits it of
his own accord, then no one can help him. First let me
know if the doctrine appeals to reason and common
sense. A, for example, a Christian by faith, i.e. a
believer in Jesus Christ as his savior, plunders the
house of B and the members of B’s family. Does sense
and logic agree to ‘A’ being let off unpunished by the
law, particularly to the Law of the AllJust
Lord of the Universe, simply because
‘A’ accepts Jesus as his savior?”
I had to say “No” because, to say
otherwise would mean I forfeit my common sense and go
against reasoning!
He continued: “There is one very grave
aspect of the doctrine of atonement through the blood
of Jesus, i.e. when we pay for a thing, the thing
becomes our own and the previous owner of that thing
forfeits his entire claim over it for the price he has
already received, is it not?”
I said: “Yes.”
Then he said: “If the sins of man have
been paid for, god has no right to punish any sinner!
Every sinner who merely believes in Jesus would be
free do anything in the world which his brutal passion
dictates him to do, for God his Lord has no right
whatsoever even to question any sinner, for Jesus has
met the cost of all his sins. Can this ever be
sensible logic or common sense? Can this doctrine help
life on earth to continue for one moment in peace and
security?”
He continued: “Please remember, Islam
wants every individual to be kept bound by his being
answerable with his own individual life as well as the
interest of the collective life in this world, himself
as a member of not only the human race but also of the
creation of the Lord as a whole. Islam continuously
invites and encourages man towards righteousness with
the promise of the blissful
life in the Hereafter and repeatedly warns him against
vice and the consequent chastisement from the All Just
Lord. The Holy Quran repeatedly warns saying:
And
be on your
guard against a Day when one soul shall not avail
another in the least, neither shall intercession on
its behalf be accepted nor shall they be helped.
(2:123)
Whoever
goes aright, for his soul does he go aright and
whoever goes astray to its detriment only does he go
astray, nor can the bearer of a burden
bear the burden of another nor do we punish until We
have sent a Messenger (to give warning).
(17:15)
O
humankind!
Surely, we have created you of a male and female and
made you into nations and tribes that you may know
each other; surely the most honorable of you with
Allah is the one among you most careful of his duty.
Surely Allah is Allknowing, Allaware.
(49:13)
While threatening man with grievous
punishment in recompense for his evil, the Holy Quran
discloses also the infinite mercy of the AllMerciful
Lord who does not want man, however much a sinner the
individual be to be totally defect or hopeless of the
merciful pardon from Him. The only condition for the
pardon he needs being the sinner’s repentance against
his vices, with his intention of amending his conduct
in the future, and the turning
wholeheartedly to obedience and
gratitude to the AllMerciful
Lord for His infinite grace.”
“For goodness sake, tell me Mr.
Thomas, which do you think is reasonable and sensible,
either making man intoxicated
and careless against sinning (i.e. making him
unreasonably confident of the price of his sins as
having already been paid by someone) or alerting man
with his commitment to virtue against vice, (i.e.
keeping him warned of the natural consequences of
getting punishment by the AllJust
Lord, against any misconduct or disobedience)?’’
I felt that I had the day understood
the hollowness of the doctrine of atonement upon which
is built the whole edifice of the Christian faith. The
divine mercy of the Lord dawned upon my heart, a new
light of Divine guidance. I
thanked god for liberating me from the clutches of the
grossly misleading dogmatic doctrine and leading me to
Islam which I have myself found through an impartial
enquiry that it is the right and the Straight Road to
salvation which the AllMerciful
Lord Himself has shown man through this Last Apostle
Muhammad, may peace be upon him and his divinely
chosen descendants.
When I disclosed my acceptance of the
true argument advanced by the lecturer and thanked
him, he told me:
“Thomas! You must thank God for
blessing you with the fulfillment of his merciful
promise to every sincere seeker of Truth!”
The AllMerciful
Lord by His infinite mercy has fulfilled
His merciful promise to give mankind the everlasting
guidance through the Holy Prophet Muhammad who would
abide in his guidance for all times.
After coming across so many strong and
unbreakable arguments against the doctrine of the Holy
Trinity and also about many other fundamentals of
Christian belief, I only wondered how such an
unreasonable faith could attract such a huge number of
people in the world.
Once I found my father returning home
very happy and immediately as he arrived he called me
and said: “You will be glad to know my dear son that
today I got 109 souls into our fold! At baptism of
such a big number, the rev father, the chief of our
mission praised my services
very much and has increased my salary as well as my
traveling allowance and has awarded me with a token
reward corresponding to the number baptized through my
efforts!”
I asked: “Who are they, father, who
were baptized?”
He said: “They are from five
surrounding villages. There are men, women, and
children.”
I asked: “Are they all educated?”
He said: “No, they are poor people of
the slums; they are only laborers in the paddy fields
of their villages.”
I asked if they had understood fully
their undertaking as converts to the Christian faith.
Would every one of them stand any cross examination
against their decision to leave the folds they were in
and their joining the Christian
Belief?
He replied: “What do you mean? I told
you they are all uneducated, poor illiterates;
laborers, from the slums! The group consists of men,
women, and children. Now I will have to go there every
day and coach them up in the doctrine of our faith.”
On hearing this I smiled, and seeing
me smiling my father asked:
“Why do you smile, Thomas? What is the matter?” I
said: “Nothing father, I do not see in this mass
conversion any matter of pride or pleasure which any
true religion or any genuine or reasonable faith can
claim for itself, for it is nothing but exploiting the
illiteracy and ignorance of the poor laborers. It is
leading the mentally blind ones into something which
they neither know nor recognize!
Do you think father, that any sensible
man can reasonably be proud
over his getting some illiterate men, women, and
children to accept his own ideals and justifiably
claim the least merit or value to his thought?”
“While the entry into a faith like
Islam is effected only after a detailed study and
enquiry by the learned ones with perfect conviction,
we Christians pride over our success in swelling up
our ranks by mass conversions of illiterate laborers,
who by circumstances are forced to accept
the Christian doctrine without knowing what they are
doing is right or wrong? An ignorant mind is like a
blank sheet, one can draw upon it whatever one’s fancy
chooses and once the inscription is made to be settled
upon such raw material, any artist can pride over the
palette having any particular design of his own. If
today to win the sympathy of the ignorant masses we
boast before our illiterate
converts of our humanity and self sacrifices
in the cause of the spread of our faith will the outer
world also forget the Edict of Milan, father, and will
all the records of history of the brutal outrages that
Christendom committed against
the poor helpless Jews, in its own passionate
eagerness and anxiety to swell its ranks totally
vanish?”
I continued: “If you kindly permit me
father, I would like to know from you if the Bible in
your hands is to be merely read, memorized and
preached to the others… or is it to be acted upon in
our daily life? If it is to be acted upon will you
kindly show me, father, if the Christian world could
ever practice the principle of turning the other cheek
also if one is already smitten? Could any sincere
Christian till now, give away his shirt when his coat
was taken away? Will you, father, surrender our whole
house if anybody invades our residence and takes possession
of any of the rooms in these premises? If the
Christian powers of the world really believe in this
doctrine of self surrender, why
do they maintain their military
and police forces?”
“Kindly tell me, father if there is
any earthly use of merely believing in any golden
ideals which can only adorn the pages of some book and
which can only be preached but never practiced. Why
should we not reasonably accept
the doctrine of selfdefense
taught by Islam, and the
principle of pardoning our offenders if they are
repentant, and amending their conduct?”
“For goodness sake let me know father,
how can three different ones at the same time be an
absolute one, both numerically and also in the
essential nature of perfect unity?”
“On what reasonable grounds can the
one who is forsaken by God, be
god himself and if Jesus is to be believed
as the son of god, what claim to the relationship with
his father can a forsaken son have?”
“What right had Christendom to claim
any truth in it when its spread was caused by inhuman
atrocities committed by the
Christian forces against the poor helpless Jews. The
conduct of the brutal outrages committed in the holy
name of the Christ, has been fully reported even by
the Christian authorities on the Edict of Milan and by
the world renowned Christian scholar Gibbon in his
famous work:
‘The Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire.’“
“The Doctrine of atonement through the
blood of Christ, will naturally attract those sinners
who have sinned and who do not want to give up sinning
under the protection of the doctrine that the price of
their sins has already been paid away and, however
much worse sinners they themselves choose to be, they
will not in the least be chastised for their heinous
crimes, for, Jesus having paid
away for the sins of man, God has forfeited His claim
to punish the sinners thereafter.”
“There are many such things, father
which need a dispassionate
study and an impartial judgment.”
“I tell you father, that whatever be
the consequences and whatever misfortune may afflict
me, I, for one, have decided not to sell away or
forfeit my conscience and common sense to believe in
such unreasonable dogmatic doctrines. I have embraced
Islam, and if you do not get angry with me, kindly
allow me to explain to you the details
of my enquiries; I will do it whenever I am requested
to do so. I do not like any thought or belief of mine
to be swallowed by any one by force, for the religion
of Islam, which I now openly declare to have embraced,
enjoins that there shall not be any compulsion in the
matter of faith, as the truth has been revealed
against falsehood.”
To my utter surprise, I found my
father fully attentive to my exposing my personal
views and convictions and at the end, he said:
“
Son,
do not think that your father is a fool. I have been
occasionally confronted with such ideas during my life
whenever I had the occasion of discussing religion
with my Muslim friends. For God’s sake keep this
matter strictly confined to you. Otherwise be sure we
will be thrown out into the street as destitute.”
A few days later, my father decided to
declare himself a Muslim, too.
I now, for the information and
guidance of every seeker of the truth, openly declare
the actual findings of my sincere
enquiry that Islam is not only the last Mighty Religion,
but it is also the perfect faith which contains all
the good. One of the most distinguishing and striking
characteristics of Islam is
that it requires of its followers to believe that all
the religions of the world that preceded it were
revealed by God for the respective people of those
ages. It is one of the fundamentals of this faith that
its followers must believe in all the prophets who
were sent into the world before the Prophet Muhammad
as truthful and sinless.
Muhammad is the name of the Prophet
through whom this all comprehensive faith was revealed
in its complete and perfect form for humanity at large
for all times. It is the West that named his faith
‘Mohammedanism’ to coincide with the fashion of
Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism,
Zoroastrianism, and Hinduism. On the other hand, the
name of this religion is already given in its Book,
the Holy Quran, as ‘Islam’, and the Prophet of Islam
is called a Muslim as any other believer. As the various
prophets preached this same Truth among different
nations at different times in different languages,
every Prophet of God is spoken of in the Holy Quran as
a Muslim. Thus I have found,
beyond all doubts that Islam is the religion which
humanity needs for its progress in all spheres of its
material as well as spiritual life to earn salvation
in the end.
A Brief introduction of Islam for New
Muslims
Islam
is to submit
completely to Allah by believing in His Oneness; by
worshipping Him, and forsaking all types of Shirk
(polytheism).
Islam is the only Deen
accepted by Allah. It is the Final Deen, which
has abrogated all previous religions. Allah does not
accept from His slaves other than it. Allah says:
‘Indeed the only accepted Deen is Islam.’
He also says, ‘and whoever seeks
other than Islam, it would not be accepted from him,
and he would be amongst the losers in the Hereafter.’
How to enter the folds of Islam:
The Two Testimonies of Faith
(La ilahah Illa Allah wa anna
Muhammad Rasool Allah)
To enter Islam, you must know the
meaning of these two testimonies; pronounce them out
of pure conviction, without the slightest doubt.
Translation of the Shahadah :
Ash’hadu: I certainly know and
believe without the slightest doubt…
An la ilahah: that there is no god
worthy of being worshipped in
the universe...
Ilal’laah: This is an affirming
sentence; i.e. that all acts of worship belong to
Allah alone...
An’na Muhammadan: Muhammad, son of
Abdullah, son of AbdulMuttalib
certainly...
Rasool Allah: was sent by Allah to
mankind at large; to both men and jinn.
Its General Meaning: (
La
ilahah Illa Allah Muhammad Rasool Allah)
There is no god
worthy of being worshipped
except Allah and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah (We
obey his commands; refrain from whatever he has
forbidden. We believe all that he has informed us
with, and that Allah is not to be worshipped except in
the manner which he has taught us.)
The Divine Scripture of Islam: It
is the Quran, which is the words of Allah; it was
revealed to Muhammad, may Allah exalt his mention,
through Angel Jibreel, may Allah
exalt his mention.
It is incumbent upon the Muslim to
memorize from it a portion enough for him to complete
his prayers.
Indeed, all previous scriptures were
distorted by their people; but the Quran remains in
its pure form as it was revealed to Muhammad, may
Allah exalt his mention. Allah has promised to
preserve it till the Day of Resurrec
tion.
Allah says: ‘Indeed We have revealed the Dhikr, and
We will preserve it.’ For this reason, no one can
distort it.
After knowing the meaning of the Two
Testimonies of Faith, pronouncing them and accepting
them whole
heartedly
(without being pressurized into accepting it or
promised worldly things upon pronouncing it) he would
become a Muslim, upon whom certain obligations would
become due, and others would be waived. If he dies
after pronouncing it, he would enter Jannah, even if
he did not do a good deed.
The Five Pillars of Islam: (These
pillars are to be physically
executed, whether the action is attestation in the
heart, profession by the tongue or a physical action)
The First Pillar: The Two
Testimonies of Faith.
There is no god worthy of being
worshipped except Al
lah,
and Muhammad, son of Abdullah, was a Prophet and
Messenger, who was sent by Allah to both men and jinn,
to guide them to worship Allah alone, without associating
any partners to Him.
The Second Pillar: The Salah
(Prayer).
They are five prayers in total during
the day and night. The reward the Muslim would attain
from performing them would be equal to the reward of
fifty prayers…if performed with its necessary
conditions, pillars and compulsory acts. Some of its
conditions are that the per
son
who wants to pray be a sane Muslim, who has reached
the age of distinction, having made Taharah (ablution)
and intention (to pray a certain prayer), and to face
the Qiblah while praying.
The Third Pillar: Zakat (PoorDue).
It is due on every Muslim whose wealth
has reached the
Nisaab
(amount of wealth which renders it incumbent upon its
owner to pay Zakat) and has been held in possession
for 12 lunar months, to give 2.5% from it to the poor
and needy from among his relatives whom he legally
does not have to support, and to other poor and needy
Muslims, as well.
The Fourth Pillar: Fasting.
The person should intend to fast from
the night. He should abstain from food and drink and
sexual inter
course
from Fajr till the sunset. The Month of Fasting
is called Ramadhan. It is compulsory on every sane,
adult Muslim.
The Fifth Pillar: Hajj
(Pilgrimage)
It is the visitation to Makkah and
other sacred sites with the intention to perform Umrah
and Hajj. It is a duty on every adult, sane Muslim who
can afford performing it, once in a lifetime. Women
who have no
Mahram (guardian)
do not have to perform Hajj.
Whoever rejects one of these pillars
out of disbelief or due to laziness would become a
Kaafir (disbeliever) and would exit the folds of
Islam.
The Six Pillars of Faith:
1. Belief in Allah: That is
to believe that He is the Creator,
the Provider, the One Who causes death and life, and
the One in Whose Hands are all affairs. He is the
First before Whom there is
none, and He is the Last after Whom there is none, He
is the Supreme above Whom there is none, and He is the
MostKnowledgeable from Whom
nothing is hidden. We believe in all His beautiful
names and attributes without distorting or suspending
them, striking parallels between them or comparing
them. Allah says,
‘There is nothing
that resembles Him, and He is the AllSeeing
AllHearing’
2. Belief in the Angels:
They are honorable slaves, who obey Allah. Among them
are Jibreel, Mee’ka’il, Israfeel, Ridhwaan, Maalik,
and the angels who record the good and bad deeds of
men.
3. Belief in the Divine
Scriptures which Allah revealed to his Prophets
and Messengers. The Last Scripture is the Quran. It
has abrogated all previous scriptures, thus it is not
permissible to put into practice any scripture besides
the Quran.
4. Belief in the Messengers:
Allah sent them to mankind to guide them to
worship Him alone, and not associate partners with
Him. We believe that Allah sent them. Among them are
the ‘Ulul Azm’ (Prophets who exerted great
efforts) who are, Nooh, Ibraheem, Musa, Eesa, and
finally Muhammad, may Allah exalt his mention, and
render him safe from every derogatory thing, who is
the last and best of them.
5. Belief in the Last Day:
It is the Day of Resurrection, the Day of Requital;
the Day believers would enter Jannah
and disbelievers sent to HellFire;
as for the sinners (who died without repenting), they
would be subject to the will of Allah. He would either
punish them or forgive them.
6.
Belief in the
Qadr’
(Preordainment)
both in its evil and good consequences. Know that
whatever is ordained would come to pass; whatever you
will be afflicted with will take place. Everything
which takes place in this universe
is already recorded in the Preserved Tablet (alLauh
alMahfoodth).
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