ISLAM IS OUR CHOICE
A selection of
testimonies of those who have embraced Islam
Analects From The Book (Islam Is Our Choice)
Mohammed Ased (Austria)
formerly (leapold Weiss) said:
The more I understood how concrete and how
immensely practical the teachings of Islam are, the more eager became my questioning as to
why the Muslims had abandoned their full application to real life. I discussed this
problem with many thinking Muslims in almost all the countries between the Libyan Desert
and the Pamirs, between the Bosphorus and the Arabian Sea. It almost became as obsession,
which ultimately overshadowed all my other intellectual interests in the world of Islam.
The questioning steadily grew in emphasis-until, a non-Muslim, talked to Muslims as if I
was to defend Islam from their negligence and indolence. The progress was imperceptible to
me until one day-it was autumn 1925, in the mountains of Afghanistan-a young provincial
Governor said to me: "But you are a Muslim, only you don’t know it yourself'. I was
struck by these words and remained silent. But when I came back to Europe once again, in
1926, 1 saw that the only logical consequence of my attitude was to embrace Islam.
So much about the circumstances of my
becoming a Muslim. Since then I was asked, time and again-. "Why did you embrace
Islam? What was it that attracted you particularly?"- and I must confess-. I don't
know of any satisfactory answer. It was not any particular teaching that attracted me, but
the whole wonderful, inexplicably coherent structure of moral teaching and practical life
program. I could not say, even now, which aspect of it appeals to me more than any other.
Islam appears to me like a perfect work of architecture. All its parts are harmoniously
conceived to complement and support each other- nothing is superfluous and nothing
lacking, with the result of an absolute balance and solid composure. Probably this feeling
that everything in the teaching and postulates of Islam is " in its proper
place," has created the strongest impression on me. There might have been, along with
it, other impressions also which today it is difficult for me to analyse After all it was
a matter of love; and love is composed of many things; of our desires and our loneliness,
of our high aims and our shortcomings, of our strength and our weakness. So it was in my
case. Islam came over me like a robber who enters a house by night- but, unlike a robber,
it entered to remain for good.
SIR JALALUDDIN LAUDER
BRUNTON (ENGLAND) STATESMAN AND BARONET SAID:
An earnest desire to worship and serve the
True God grew in me. The creeds of Christianity claim to be founded on the Bible, but I
found these to be conflicting. It possible that Bible and the teaching of Jesus Christ had
been misrepresented? So, I turned my attention again to the Bible and determined to make a
careful study, and I felt that there was something wanting.
I eventually took up the study of the life
of Prophet Mohammed. I knew very little of what he did, but I knew and felt that the
Christians with one voice condemned the celebrated Prophet of Arabia, I was now determined
to look into the matter without the spectacles of bigotry and malice. After a little time
I found that it was impossible to doubt the earnestness of his search after Truth and God.
I felt that it is wrong, in the extreme, to
condemn this Holy Man after reading his great achievements for humanity. People who were
wild idol worshippers, living in crime, filth and nakedness. He taught them how to dress.
Filth was replaced by cleanliness, and they acquired personal dignity and self-respect.
Hospitality became a religious duty, their idols were destroyed and they worship the True
and only one God. Islam became the most powerful Total Abstinence Association in the
world. And many other good works were accomplished which are too numerous to be mentioned.
In the face of all this and his own purity of mind, how sad to think that such a Holy
Messenger of God should be run down by the Christians. I became deeply thoughtful, and
during my moments of meditation as Indian gentleman named Main Amiruddin came on a visit,
and strangely enough it was he who fanned the fire of my life into a flame. I pondered
over the matter a great deal; brought one argument after the other bearing upon the
Christians' present day religion and I concluded in favour of Islam, feeling convinced of
it truth, simplicity, toleration, sincerity and brotherhood.
I have now but a little time to live upon
this earth and I mean to devote my all to Islam.
MRS. CECILIA MAHMUDA
CANNOLY (AUSTRALIA) SAID:
Why I embraced Islam?
First and foremost I would say it was
because fundamentally I had always been a Muslim without being aware of it.
Very early in my life I had lost faith in
Christianity for many reasons, the major one being that whenever I questioned any
Christian, whether it was a person belonging to the so-called Holy Orders or a layman,
regarding any point that puzzled me in regard to the Church teachings, I invariably
received the monotonous answer- 'You must not question the teaching of the Church; you
must have faith'. I did not have the courage in those days to say: 'I cannot have faith in
something that I do not understand', and, from my experience, neither do most of the
people who call themselves Christians. What I did do was to leave the Church (Roman
Catholic) and its teaching and to place my faith in the one true God in whom it was much
easier to believe, than in the three gods of the Church. By contrast with the mysteries
and miracles of the Christian teaching, life took on a new wider meaning, no longer
cramped with dogma and ritual. Everywhere I looked I could see God's work. And although,
in common with greater minds than my own, I could not understand the miracles that
happened before my eyes, I could stand and marvel at the wonder of it all the trees,
flowers, birds and animals. Even a new born bade became a beautiful miracle, not the same
thing that the Church had taught me to believe at all. I remembered how, when a child I
gazed at new-born babies and thought, "It's all covered in black sin', I no longer
believed in ugliness- everything became beautiful.
Then one day my daughter brought home a
book about Islam. We became so interested in it that we followed it up with many other
books on Islam. We soon realised that this was really what we believed. During the time I
had believed in Christianity I had been led to believe that Islam was only something to
joke about. Thus all that I then read was? Revelation to me. After a while I looked up
some Muslims and questioned them on some of the points that were not quite clear to me.
Here again there was yet another revelation. My questions were all answered promptly and
concisely, so different from the frustration I had experienced when questioning
Christianity. After much reading and studying of the religion of Islam both my daughter
and myself decided to become Muslims, taking the names of Rashida and Mahmuda
respectively.
DEVIS WARRINGTON-FRY
(Australia) said:
Islam came to me as the spring comes to the
cold earth after dark winter. It has warmed my soul and clothed me in beautiful teachings.
How clear and fresh are the teachings of Islam and how logical! "There is but One God
and Muhammad is His Prophet". Can there be anything more sublime than this? None of
the mysterious 'The Father, the son and the Holy Ghost' ritual. Which, I suppose, is quite
awe-inspiring but is hardly satisfactory to a keen mind. Islam is so modern, so applicable
to the world today. Take, for instance, the teachings of the Equality of Man which is
taught also in the Christian churches but which, with them has no meaning with their Pope
and Archbishops and bishops, and so on, all striving for power and using God's name as an
excuse. How different is Islam from this! How much more sincere are the teachings of
Mohammed (peace be upon him) as revealed to him by God!
Sir Abdullah Archibald
Hamilton (England) (Formerly Sir Charles Edward Archibald Watkins Hamilton),
(Statesman and Baronet):
Since arriving at an age of discretion, the
beauty and the simple purity of Islam have always appealed to me. I could never, though
born and brought up as a Christian, believe in the dogmatic aspect of the Church, and have
always placed reason and common sense above blind faith.
As the time progressed, I wished to be at
peace with my Creator, and I found that both the Church of Rome and the Church of England
were of no real use to me.
In becoming a Muslim I have merely obeyed
the dictates of my conscience, and have since felt a better and a truer man.
There is no religion that is so maligned by
the ignorant and the biased as is Islam; yet if people only knew, it is the religion of
strong for the weak, the rich for the poor. Humanity is divided into three classes. First,
those on whom God has, out of His bounty, bestowed possessions and wealth; secondly, those
who have to work to earn their living; and lastly, the great army of the unemployed, or
those who have fallen by the wayside through no fault of their own.
Again Islam recognises genius and
individuality. It is constructive and not destructive. For example, if a landowner who is
rich and is not in need of cultivating his land refrains from doing so for some time, his
property ipso facto becomes public property, and according to Islamic Law, passes into the
hands
of the first person who cultivates it.
Islam strictly forbids its adherents to gamble or to
indulge in any games of chance. It prohibits all alcoholic drinks and interdicts usury,
which alone has caused enough sorrow. In conclusion, I would like to say that, whereas
Islam guides humanity in the daily workaday life, the present-day so-called Christianity,
indirectly in theory and invariably in practice, teaches its followers, it would seem, to
pray to God on Sundays and to prey on His creatures for the rest of the week.
Muhammad Aman Hobohn
(Germany) Diplomat, Missionary and social worker said:
Why Do Westerners embrace Islam? There are
various reasons for it. In the first place, truth always has its force. The basic tenets
of Islam are so rational, so natural and so appealing that an honest truth-seeker cannot
help being impressed by them. To take, for example, the belief in monotheism. How it
raises the dignity of man and how it frees us from the grip of superstition! How naturally
it leads to the equality of men, for all have been created by the same God and all are
servants of the same Lord. For the Germans, in particular, the belief in God is a source
of inspiration, a source of fearless courage and a source of the feeling of security. Then
the idea of a life after death turns the tables. Life in this world remains no more the
main objective, and great part of human energy is devoted to the betterment of the
Hereafter. The faith in the Day of Judgement automatically spurs a man to give up
misdeeds, for good deeds alone can ensure eternal salvation, although the wrong deeds may
prosper here for a limited period. The belief that none can escape the consequences of the
judgement of a Just, Impartial and Omniscient Lord makes one think twice before one does
anything wrong and surely this internal check is more effective than the most efficient
police in the world.
Another thing that attracts foreigners to
Islam is its emphasis on tolerance. Then the daily prayers teach one punctuality and the
one month of fasting enables one to exercise self-control over oneself and without doubt
punctuality and self-discipline are two of the most important attributes of a good man and
a great man.
R.L. MELLEMA,
ANTHROPOLOGIST.WRITER AND SCHOLAR (HOLLAND):
What is now for me the beauty of Islam and
what in particular has attracted me to this faith!
I will try to give a short answer on these
questions in 6 points.
1. The acknowledgement of One Supreme Being
uncomplicated and easy to accept by every reasonable thinking creature- Allah, He on Whom
all depend. He begets not, nor is He begotten and none is like Him. He represents the
highest wisdom, the highest strength and the highest beauty. His Charity and Mercy are
unboundless.
2. The relation between the Creator of the
Universe and His creatures, of whom man has been entrusted with the supreme direction, is
a direct one. The believer does not need any mediation- Islam does not need priesthood. In
Islam contract with God depends on man himself. Man has to prepare himself in this life
for the next, He is responsible for his deeds, which cannot be compensated by a
substituting sacrifice of an innocent person. No soul shall be burdened beyond its
capacity.
3. The doctrine of tolerance of Islam so
clearly manifested in the well known words; there is no compulsion in religion. A Muslim
is recommended to search for the truth where he may find it; also he is enjoined to
estimate the good properties of other religions.
4. The doctrine of brotherhood of Islam,
which extends to all human beings, no matter what colour, race or creed. Islam is the only
religion which has been able to realise this doctrine in practice. Muslims wherever on the
world they are, will recognise each other as brothers. The equality of the whole mankind
before God is symbolised significantly in the lhram dress during the Hajj.
5. The fact that Islam accepts matter and
mind both as existing values. The mental growth of man is connected inseparable with the
needs of the body, whereas man has to behave in such a way that mind prevails over matter
and matter is controlled by mind.
6. The prohibition of alcoholic drinks and
narcotic drugs. This is in particular a point in respect of which it may be said that
Islam is far ahead of its time.
UMAR MITA, ECONOMIST,
SOCIAL WORKER AND PREACHER (JAPAN):
The majority of our people are Buddhists,
but they are Buddhists in name only. They are not practicing Buddhists and actually they
are almost unmindful of their religious knowledge. The main reason for this apathetic
attitude may be due to the fact that Buddhism presents a high sounding and complicated
philosophy and gives nothing practical. It is thus beyond the reach of an average person
who remains busy with the problems of this worldly life. He cannot understand it nor can
he implement it. It is not so with Islam. The teachings of Islam are simple,
straight-forward and quite practical. It governs all the departments of human life. It
moulds the thinking of man and when once the thinking becomes pure, pure actions will
follow spontaneously. The teachings of Islam are so simple, easy and practical that every
one can understand it. It is not the monopoly of the priests as is the case in other
religions.
Bertrand Russell Says:
Our use of the phrase The Dark Ages to
cover the period from 699 to 1000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe From
India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished. What was lost to
Christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary To us it
seems that West-European civilization is civilization, but this is a narrow view.
History of Westem Philosophy, London: 1948,
p.419
G. B. Show once said:
" I have always held the religion of
Mohammed in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality.
It is the only religion, which appears to
me to posses that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make
itself appeal to every age. I have studied him- the wonderful man and in my opinion far
from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a
man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in
solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I
have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of
tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.
