Believe
It or Not: You were Born Muslim!
http://english.islamway.com/bindex.php?section=article&id=301
By: Umm Rashid
What
would you call a religion whose beliefs, practices and followers are being
bashed and bad-mouthed in practically every sphere of activity, in almost
every corner of the globe, yet it attracts ever-increasing numbers of people?
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
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 Islaam
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 Adam 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 Judgment, “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 Adam [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 protoplasm, 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
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,
[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 favors, whereas in Islam they are
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
[Mavis
B Jolly,
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
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
[Faruq
B Karai,
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.
[Source:
All quotes from "Why I chose Islaam" and
"Islaam: My choice"]