| A Paradox? A Miracle ? Or simply, The Truth:
Islaam.
The fact that Islaam is the fastest growing religion
in the world today, is proof that our Creator has
taken it upon Himself to perfect the Truth that He
sent all His prophets and messengers with -- from
Aadam [AS] to Muhammad [SAW].
Studies conducted in the West show that the sheer
number of new Muslims is changing the
demographic profile of countries all over the
world, and not all of them are born into Muslim
families. With some 6 million adherents in the
United States, Islam is said to be the nation’s
fastest-growing religion. One expert estimates that
25,000 people a year become Muslims in this
country; some clerics say they have seen
conversion rates quadruple since Sept 11.
Ironically for a religion that is routinely bashed
for “subjugating” and “oppressing” its female
followers, the number of female reverts to Islaam
outnumber the males 4:1!
The fact that more and more people are finding
their way to Islaam, notwithstanding the relentless
propaganda, deliberate misinformation and
outright prejudice against it, never ceases to
amaze me.
How do these people navigate in the darkness to
find the light of Is
laam in spite of all the obstacles in the way?
The answer is that our Creator has granted each
one of us a guiding light -- a pure, undefiled
innate nature called the fitrah. Unlike Christians
who believe in the doctrine of Original Sin and
assert that each baby is born tainted with the sin
of Adam’s disobedience to God, Muslims believe
that every child is born into a state of purity where
it recognizes its Creator and is naturally
subservient to His laws.
In his book The Fundamentals of Islaamic
Monotheism, Abu Ameenah Bilaal Philips writes:
Just as a child’s body submits to the physical laws
which Allaah has put in nature, its soul also
submits naturally to the fact that Allaah is its Lord
and Creator. But its parents try to make it follow
their own way and the child is not strong enough
in the early stages of its life to resist or oppose its
parents. The religion which the child follows at
this stage is one of custom and upbringing and
Allaah does not hold it to account for this
religion.
When the child matures in youth and clear proofs
of the falsehood of its religion are brought to it,
the adult must now follow the religion of
knowledge and reason. At this point the devils try
their best to encourage him to stay as he is or to
go further astray. Evils are made pleasing to him
and he must now live in the midst of a struggle
between his innate pure nature and his desires in
order to find the right road.
If he chooses to follow his innate nature, his
fitrah, Allaah will help him overcome his desires
even though it may take most of his life to escape,
for many people enter Islaam in their old age.
The Qur’aan also points to this phenomenon,
where every soul that has been created is asked
Who their Lord is, and they testify that it is none
other than Allaah before they are born into the
world.
When your Lord drew forth from the loins of
the children of Aadam their descendants and
made them testify concerning themselves.
Saying: Am I not your Lord? They said: “Yes,
we testify to it.” (This) in case you say on the
Day of Judgement, “We were unaware of this.”
Or in case you say: It was our ancestors who
made partners (with Allaah) and we are only
their descendants…[Surah Al-A’raaf 7:172-173]
Explaining this verse, the Prophet [SAW] said:
When Allaah created Aadam [AS] , He took a
covenant from him …then He extracted from him
all of his descendants who would be born until the
end of the world, generation after generation and
spread them out in front of Him in order to take a
covenant from them.
He spoke to them face to face saying: Am I not
your Lord? And they all replied: Yes, we testify to
it.
Allaah then explained why He had all of mankind
bear witness that He was their Creator and the
only true God worthy of worship. He said: That
was in case you (mankind) should say on the Day
of Resurrection, “Surely we were unaware of all
this. We had no idea that You were our God.”
[Silsilah al ahadeeth as Saheehah, Narrated by
ibn Abbaas, collected by Imaam Ahmad]
This is the reason why people who adopt Islaam
are said to revert instead of convert, because they
are going back to their original nature -- the one
they were naturally created with -- which is
automatically aligned with the Universe, its
Creator and His Laws; as opposed to simply
exchanging one set of beliefs for another.
Reverts to Islaam testify that this inner inclination
to search for the Truth, to know and follow it is a
major factor in their adopting the faith. It is
interesting to see some of the reasons cited by
reverts for adopting Islaam:
Islaamic Monotheism
“The Christian sect of Athanasians insistently
inculcates the tenet that Christianity is based on a
belief in three gods (Trinity), that a slightest doubt
as to this belief will lead one to immediate
perdition; and that a person who wishes to attain
salvation in this world and the next should
definitely hold a belief in the three gods: God, the
Son of God, and the Holy Ghost.
When I became a Muslim, I received a letter,
which said: “By becoming a Muslim you have
damned yourself to perdition. No one can save
you. For you deny the divinity of God.” The poor
man [who wrote that letter] thought that I no
longer believed in God, not knowing that when
Jesus had begun to preach, he stated the unity of
God and he never claimed to be His son.
[Lord Headley al-Farooq; British diplomat,
engineer]
An answer for every question:
“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 the human
mind.”
Upon this I decided to study, on the one hand,
Oriental religions, and on the other hand, books
written by famous philosophers. 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 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
[Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb; American
diplomat, author]
Direct relationship with one’s
Creator:
Now I realize I can get in direct contact with God,
unlike Christianity or any other religion. As one
Hindu lady told me, “You don't understand the
Hindus. We believe in one God; we use these
objects (idols) to merely concentrate.” What she
was saying was that in order to reach God, one
has to create associates, that are idols for the
purpose. But Islam removes all these barriers.
[Yusuf Islaam, formerly Cat Stevens]
Universality:
Islam is a religion that belongs not only to the
Arabs but to the entire humanity. This universal
quality presents a sharp contrast with the Judaic
religion, whose holy book always refers to the
God of Israel.
One more thing that I love in Islam is that this
religion recognizes all the prophets, makes no
distinction between them and treats the believers
of other religions with compassion.
[Mahmud Gunnar Ahmad, Swedish Muslim]
Absolute equality before God,
extended brotherhood:
There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all
over the world. They were of all colors, from
blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But
we were all participating in the same ritual,
displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that
my experiences in America had led me to believe
never could exist between the white and non-
white.
America needs to understand Islam, because this
is the one religion that erases from its society the
race problem. Throughout my travels in the
Muslim world, I have met, talked to, and even
eaten with people who in America would have
been considered white - but the white attitude was
removed from their minds by the religion of
Islam. I have never before seen sincere and true
brotherhood practiced by all colors together,
irrespective of their color.
You may be shocked by these words coming from
me. But on this pilgrimage, what I have seen, and
experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of
my thought-patterns previously held, and to toss
aside some of my previous conclusions. This was
not too difficult for me. Despite my firm
convictions, I have always been a man who tries
to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as
new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I
have always kept an open mind, which is
necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in
hand with every form of intelligent search for
truth.
During the past eleven days here in the Muslim
world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk
from the same glass, and slept on the same rug –
while praying to the same God - with fellow
Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue,
whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose
skin was the whitest of white. And in the words
and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the
same sincerity that I felt among the black African
Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana. We were
truly all the same (brothers) - because their belief
in one God had removed the white from their
minds, the white from their behavior, and the
white from their attitude.
[Letter written from Makkah, by Malcolm X]
Purity of prayer:
If I were asked what impressed me most in the
religion of Islam, I would probably say the
prayers, because prayers in Christianity are used
wholly in begging God (through Jesus Christ) to
grant worldly favours, whereas in Islam they ar
used to give praise and thanks to Almighty God
for all His blessings since He knows what is
necessary for our welfare and grants us what we
need without our asking it.
[Cecilia Mahmuda Cannolly, Australian Muslim]
Women’s rights and status:
No doubt, influenced by the usual condemnation
of Islam from Christian pulpits on the subject, I
picked on polygamy. At last I thought I had
something; obviously Western monogamy was an
improvement on this old system. I talked of it to
my Muslim friend. He illustrated with the aid of
newspaper articles how much true monogamy
there was in England, and convinced me that a
limited polygamy was the answer to the secret unions that are becoming so distressingly
common in the West. My own common sense
could see that, particularly after a war, when
women of a certain age group far outnumber men,
a percentage of them are destined to remain
spinsters. Did God give them life for that? I
recollect that on the radio programme known as
`Dear Sir' an unmarried English girl had called for
lawful polygamy, saying she would prefer a
shared married life rather than the loneliness to
which she seemed to be destined. In Islam no one
is forced into a polygamous marriage, but in a
perfect religion, the opportunity must be there to
meet those cases where it is necessary.
[Mavis B Jolly, UK]
Belief in the Qur’aan as Divine
Revelation:
I read as much of the Qur’aan as I could. I was
immersed in it. As I read the verses in English, I
repeated to myself over and over again, this is
what I have always thought and believed. What
kind of book was this? Before long I was reading
the book and crying, and reading and crying... it
was as if something had overtaken me... I forgot
what I was looking for in particular, however
when I came upon the verses in Surah Baqarah
122-141 regarding Prophet Ibrahim (AS) I had
found my answer.
I had been searching for Isma'il (as), son of
Prophet Ibrahim and his wife Hajarah, who had
been missing from the Hebrew brothers story. In
those verses I found the truth of religion... They
say: Become Jews or Christians if ye would be
guided (to salvation). Say thou: Nay! (I would
rather) the religion of Abraham the True, and he
joined not gods with Allah. Say ye: We believe in
Allah, and the revelation given to us, and to
Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and
that given to Moses and Jesus, and that given to
(all) the Prophets from their Lord; We make no
difference between one another of them: and we
submit to Allah." (2:135-136) As I continued to
read and cry, I became intent upon finding
someone who could connect me with others who
believed in this book!
[K H Abdul Lateef, USA]
The personal example of the
Prophet Muhammad [SAW]:
I accepted Islam because I admired the Prophet
Muhammad.[SAW]. I had quite a number of
Muslim friends in Zanzibar, who gave me Islamic
books, which I read in secrecy from my family. I
became a Muslim despite the remonstrances of
my family and the oppressions of the priests of
Parsee religion, which had been my religion until
that time. I held fast to my religion and resisted
against all sorts of threats. Now I love Allaah and
His last Prophet Muhammad [SAW] more than
my life
[Faruq B Karai, Zanzibar]
Islaam withstands scrutiny and
encourages reasoning:
Instead of asking a follower to believe in its
precepts just ”because” or someone asks them to,
Islaam encourages people to think for themselves,
reflect on the signs of God in Creation and within
their own selves. Little wonder then that a sizable
number of reverts are thinking people: scientists,
astronomers, philosophers, doctors.
As created beings who can neither grant life nor
ward off death, we owe it to ourselves and The
One Who Created Us to discover the Truth, to
follow it and to facilitate others to do the same. |
الجمعة 18 مارس 2022 - 14:14 من طرف 
المزاج
موضوع: You were Born Muslim 
