In the name of God the Merciful & the most
Gracious
How I became a Muslim
My endless gratitude are due to Allah on the most precious gift He endowed
upon me, that of Islam. In today's world no one worships God in the proper
way that is worthy of His Grace except Muslims, & I have the privilege of
being one of them. The journey that ended in me reaching this great
destiny was long & weary. I spent 40 years of my life misguided till I was
able to set foot on the right path. Here is what happened.
Childhood My father was a
preacher in the Alexandria [Egypt] branch of the Society of friends of the
Holy Book. He preached in the poor quarters, slums & underprivileged
villages in the vicinity of the city trying to attract poor Muslims to
Christianity. He insisted on my joining the Church hierarchy & made me
attend the Sunday schools since the early age of 6 years. There they are
experts in brainwashing kids' minds & implanting in them seeds of
prejudice & hatred towards Muslim fellow countrymen. There I learned
vicious notions of how Muslims seized Egypt by force & torture from
Christians, how they forced them to embrace Islam & those who did not
were mistreated to force them to migrate & leave the country. They taught
us that Muslims are more atheist than pagans & that their holy book [the
Quran] was not revealed by God but rather fabricated by Mohamed.
At home, there was a different story. My father used to tell us stories
about deviations of the Church away from the right path & from true
Christianity which forbade making & worshiping statues/pictures, & which
did not contain any confession ritual or kneeling infront of Patriarchs.
Youth I moved quickly up
the Church hierarchy to become a teacher in the Sunday schools at the age
of 18. I did my readings to be able to lecture the young students. In the
summer we went to convents where we were lectured by expert Christian
theologists who never stopped criticizing Islam. They told us that the
Quran is full of sexual script & has many contradictory verses. They
claimed that prophet Mohamed took the fundamentals of his religion from
Christianity at the hands of a monk he met during his early life whom he
later killed to cover up his sources!
Many of us Christian young men were puzzled at the core of our faith & its
irrationality. We used to ask our senior clergymen skeptical questions.
Once someone asked: What do you think of Mohamed? & the preacher replied:
a genius. But there are many geniuses (as Appleton or Sucrets) & these
have no followers who lasted for centuries & are increasing! & the
preacher becomes puzzled. Another asked: How do you see the Quran? The
answer would be: a book that narrates the stories of prophets & guides
people to do good; still it is written by a person & it is full of
mistakes. If so, then why do you forbid us from reading it & blemish
anyone who does so as an atheist? Again the preacher has no answer. A 3rd
person would say: it is written in the old testament that anyone who
claims prophecy when he is not actually sent by God will be wiped out with
his clan. Now Mohamed continued preaching for 23 years till he died of
natural causes & his clan has propagated through the years to spread to
the whole world. How can you explain that? & the given reply is a bland
non-convincing statement that God may be testing the faith of Christians
by this Muslim challenge.
In 1971 an event took place in my presence that augmented my
perplexity. The head of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt (Patriarch
Shenoudah) issued a decree forbidding a senior clergyman of his church
(Reverend Raphael, head of the Meena convent) from praying. The reason was
that the Rev. did not include the Patriarch's name in his prayers! Another
senior clergyman, Rev. Samuel, encouraged him to continue praying, as we
pray to God not to a specific person. Raphael abstained obeying the decree
saying that he was afraid that the Patriarch would prohibit him from going
to Heaven should he hear about his defiance!! Samuel was discontent & said
it out loud: This could never happen with Muslims who are directly
connected to God needing no Patriarch to intervene & give orders.
One thing that really confused me at the time was the relation between the
various sects of Christianity, with each claiming to be righteous while
all others cursed atheist non-believers. Once I asked my father of
confession Rev. Mathaus Raphael about this matter & he said that this
curse holds on earth & in Heaven. I said; "So we are atheists because the
Pope of Rome said so & Catholics are atheists because our Patriarch told
us they were so. Aren't all Christians cursed in one way or the other
according to this belief?" "Regretfully yes." "So how will we fare on
judgement day?" "God will be merciful upon us all."
Shifting towards Islam Once
I was going into a church when I took notice of a big Jesus Christ's
picture suffering on the crucifix & I wondered, "Could this feeble
agonizing creature be our Almighty God? Should I worship this fragile
person fleeing the tyranny of Jews?" I was astonished when it a came to my
knowledge that a verse of the Holy Book cursed the crucifix & the one
crucified (DT 21:22-23) & yet we continue to worship them!
In 1981, after I graduated as a physician & was
practicing medicine, I had a Muslim neighbor. We used to have long debates
on our religions. One day he was talking to me about the system of
inheritance in Islam & how it covers every possibility & provides justice
to all. He asked me, "Do you have in your religion anything like that?" I
could not answer. I kept thinking to myself how can any one man (genius as
he may be) construct single-handed such a perfect comprehensive system
with all its duties towards God & towards fellow humans that has no
contradictions/differences/errors? Surely, this is coming from Heaven. How
did Jews & Christians with all their money & power failed in proving that
Islam is an invention of Mohamed? How did they fail in stopping its
spread?
The period 1982-1990 witnessed a change of faith. I
was an internist in a Chest hospital of Alexandria & I had a fellow
physician who used a lot of Mohamed's sayings in his dealings with
colleagues. At first I was jealous, but then I became interested in
hearing these eloquent sayings: few in wording & profound in meaning. I
began to look upon Mohamed as a true prophet of God.
Was my father a Muslim in cognito?
What pushed me further in the path to Islam were some strange discoveries
about my father. He refused kissing the hands of more senior clergymen. He
did not believe in the rituals of bread & wine representing the body &
blood of the incarnated Jesus Christ. He started abandoning churches &
preaching. He slept well into Friday morning (instead of attending to
Church prayers) & then took a bath & went down at noon (was he attending
the Muslim Friday prayers?)
He started using some Islamic phrases at home. When he died in 1988
I found his private Bible with several notes in his handwriting pointing
to contradictory verses & mistakes. Later, I came across an old Bible of
my grandfather (dated 1930) in which words that were changed in later
editions were clearly marked (e.g. instead of calling Jesus "master" or
"teacher", these became "Lord" implying that Christ's worshipping started
in his life, not as it is known by St Paul's sayings years after Christ's
ascent to Heaven).
The mosque - The Quran - The dream
There was a mosque close to where I had my private clinic. I used to peep
inside only to find a plain space. There were no precious carpets, no
chandeliers, no seats, no statues or pictures, no musical instruments with
singings & clapping (like the church choir). Praying to God involved
standing in straight rows with one Muslim brother next to the other (no
differences between rich & poor/young & old), kneeling down all in one
synchronous movement & asking God in piety. The comparison was always in
favor of Muslim prayers.
I decided to read the Quran. I bought one from a library &
remembered that my neighbor used to wash before reading the book. He told
me that Quran must not be touched except by the clean ones. I did wash as
far as I could remember what I saw him do. I started reading avidly &
finished the whole book in only 2 days. I discovered that what we learned
in the Sunday schools & convents was all untrue. I was touched by the
verses that inform Mohamed that he is going to die. Who could dare say
such a thing except the Almighty. I asked God to guide me to the right
path.
A little later I had a revealing dream. I slept while
reading & had the Quran near me. Towards dawn there was this overwhelming
light in the room & someone was pointing at the book. I stretched my arms
to shake hands, but he was gone. I got the notion that this was the
signal. Yes, the Quran was my guide.
Submitting to Islam I went
to an attorney's office to ask how to officially convert. I had to go to
the Religious Affairs section of the internal security administration. I
couldn't sleep that night. I went down at 6 in the morning & entered a
church. There were all these statues & drawings of Jesus & Mary, of the
apostles & of the Patriarchs. I started talking to them: I am about to
desert the religion of my parents, if you were right please do something
now. Show me some miracle of yours or some sign to impede me. Indicate to
me that I am doing wrong. Of course there was nothing. I started to weep &
repented all the years lost in this phony faith. I felt purified by my
tears. Now I am clean of any paganism & I am following the righteous path
of God. I went to the administration & had a long & winding road of red
tape procedures that lasted 10 months. I met a lot of Muslims who were
skeptical of my intentions & doubtful of my true faith. But now I am
backed with Allah & I can feel strong enough to face all the challenges. I
officially became a Muslim in August 1992.
May God keep me alive as a Muslim &
take my life on this faith
May God guide my offspring to submit in
piety & obedience to your religion
May our last words be the thanking of
You God of the whole universe
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