The Muslim History:


A word must be declared regarding Muslim's beliefs. A Muslim is not considered so, unless he accept


and hallow all of God's prophets, as much as he does to Muhammad 'peace be upon him'. If he


disbelieve or slander any of them, then he is considered out of Islam! disbelieving in any of them is like


disbelieving in All of them.


The history of the Muslim is the history of the 'Single Message' that all Prophets received from God to


spread among people. And Muslims hallow 'Abraham', 'Moses' and 'Jesus', and the origional 'Torah' and


'Gospel' that were revealed from God, same as they hallow, and believe in 'Muhammad' and the


'Qur’an'! As God says:“The Messenger has believed in what was revealed to him from his Lord,


and [so have] the believers. All of them have believed in Allah and His angels and His books and


His messengers, [saying], We make no distinction between any of His messengers. And they say,


We hear and we obey. [We seek] Your forgiveness, our Lord, and to You is the [final]


destination." (Holy Qur’an 2:285)


So a Muslim always follow footsteps of the Prophets, considering their history is his.


And we [Muslims], since childhood, our hearts blossem with 'Adam' in Paradise, and to 'Noah' in the


Ark, to 'Abraham' smashing the 'idols' with his hands, and 'Moses' splitting the sea with his stick, and


'Jesus' son of Mary, when brought in cradle, speaking to his mom's people, and to Muhammad in the


cave repeating after Angel Gabriel "Read[Recite] in the name of your Lord who created”


We, Muslims, (If the Jews fight us under the banner of Moses, We fight back under the banner of


Moses, Jesus and Muhammad,'peace be upon them all') (said by Sheikh Yousuf Alqardhawy).


And-thank God-we, Muslims, do not live any conflict toward any divine message or Apostle, and we


follow 'Prophet Muhammad's speech, "I am the most obliged to Jesus, son of Mary", that we carry


love, toward Jesus and his mother in our hearts, same as we do for the rest of Prophets.


This is our consideration of the Prophets, will their followers ever have the same to our Prophet? It was


said that (Most of the Western, grow up carrying hatred of Islam, while Muslims grow up


carrying love of Christ and the Gospel that was reveled to him). (Moqademat alolum walmanahij, By


Anwar aljindy).


(If Christians knew Islam, and embraced it, They were to honor Christ'peace be upon him'more.)


(said by Muhammad Gareeb).


We hope that the pioneer of people, all people, is the 'Search for Truth'. We believe that honesty with


oneself can drive people to sensible review of attitudes and beliefs, and we hope that thinking, and


substantive dialogues will do their role in the 'Search for Truth'.


CHAPTER-2-


TESTIMONIES OF THOSE WHO CONVERTED TO ISLAM


(The greatest battles are fought within the soul,


it is there where victories and defeats are made)


(Abdul Karim Bakkar*) * Islamic educational thinker


Their lives were aimlessly....they were searching for a meaning. Their souls were inhabited by


darkness....so they demanded sustenance of splendor.


Their hearts were wallowing in the mud of material....so they washed them with rosaries of purity....and


dipped them into fragrances of Faith.


Similar stories....long and arduous journey, on a road that is fraught with uncertainty and thorns. Then


came the great moment, when they pass by the upper turning point in their lives, that divert them


ultimately with a single push to reach the top! Where Islam is! Where they drop off ignorance,


confusion, and loss on it's threshold.


The juncture where they declared 'Monotheism Testimony', it's moment is non-measurable by timing,


but by ticking of hearts beats! Such a sacred moment that descends from paradise, into their lives


precisely, apart from all other people. It is a moment of inspiration that provids tremendous vitality to


their minds, and a burst of spiritual power, that control the devotion of life.


Lucky those who are destined to see, the new Muslim at the moment he uttered the testimony.


And I have no doubt that there were angels descending in that place, with angels ascending to raise that


fresh odor of faith to God in heaven.


I pray to the Lord, who blessed them with Islam in this life, to bless them with consent in the


Hereafter....accompanied by the readers and the author of this book altogether.....Amen.


Muhammad Asad [Leopold Weiss]*(1900–1992)


Austrian reporter


(...all the answers are but waiting for us while we, poor fools, ask questions and wait for the


secrets of God to open themselves up to us;


when they, all the while, are waiting for us to open ourselves up to them...) (The road to Mecca)


An Austrian Jew who converted to Islam. He studied philosophy and art at the University of Vienna


and then he practised being a reporter in the Arab Middle East and Islamic world, and he settled for a


while in Jerusalem, then visited Cairo, meeting the Imam Mustafa Al-Maraghi, where the two men had


dialogues about religions, then he began to learn the Arabic language in the corridors of Al-Azhar


[Islamic university in Cairo], while he was still a Jew.


Weiss was a man in doubts, searching for the truth. He was astonished and angry at realizing the large


gap between the degradation in Muslims world, and the splendors of their religion! One day while


sitting with a district coverner in Afganistan [hakim], listening to a song on Daud – the Arabic name for


King David – who overcame the powerful Goliath, Asad was not Muslim then. And '...When it ended,


the hakim remarked:'David was small, but his faith was great...' I could not prevent myself from


adding: 'And you are many, but your faith is small.' the astonishment of his host encouraged him to


preceed bitterly about how come the Muslims abanded their fairh, lost their self-confidance and


surrender to the thoughts and custom of the West! '...And how come that so many Muslims are


ignorant although your Prophet declared that Striving after knowledge is a most sacred duty for


every Muslim man and woman'


At the end, his host wispered 'But - you are a Muslim...'...'I laughed and replied: No, I am not a


Muslim, but I have come to see so much beauty in Islam that it makes me sometimes angry to


watch you people waste it...' (The road to Mecca)


This shook him deeply, and placed him in front of what he had been escaping from, that kept haunting


him until he testified the Shahada [Islam declaration] in Berlin years after that!


Asad regarded Islam not as a religion in the conventional, or western sense but as a way of life for all


times. In Islam he had found a religious system and a practical guide for everyday living that were


harmoniously balanced. '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; and the result is a structure of absolute balance and solid composure.'


And he considered how the Human's been honord in Islam:'Contrary to the Christian idea that man


is born sinful, or the teachings of Hinduism that he is originally low and impure -- the Islamic


teaching contends that man is born pure'


And'According to the Quran, God did not call for blind subservience on the part of man but


rather appealed to his intellect; He did not stand apart from man's destiny but was nearer to you


than the vein in your neck; He did not draw any dividing line between faith and social behaviour;


and, what was perhaps most important, He did not start from the axiom that all life was


burdened with a conflict between matter and spirit and that the way toward the Light demanded


a freeing of the soul from the shackles of the flesh. Every form of life-denial and self-mortification


had been condemned by the Prophet in sayings like 'there is no world-renunciation in Islam'.


'Human beings will to live was not only recognized as a positive, fruitful instinct but was


endowed with the sanctity of an ethical postulate as well. Man was taught, in effect: You not only


may utilize your life to the full, but you are OBLIGED to do so.'


Asad spent some six years in the holy cities of Mecca and Madinah, where he studied Arabic, the


Qur'an, the hadith[the tradition of the Prophet] and Islamic history. To study Muslim communities and


cultures further east, Asad left Arabia for India in 1932. There he met the celebrated poet-philosopher


Muhammad Iqbal, the spiritual progenitor of Pakistan.


Asad moved to Pakistan after its creation in 1947 and was charged by its government with formulating


ideological foundations for the new state. Later he was transferred to the Pakistan Foreign Ministry to


head its Middle East Division, where he endeavored to strengthen Pakistan's ties to other Muslim


countries. He capped his diplomatic career by serving as Pakistan's Minister Plenipotentiary to the


United Nations—a position he resigned in 1952 to write his autobiography, 'The Road to Mecca'.


After writing this book, he left New York in 1955 and finally settled in Spain. He did not cease to write.


At 80, after 17 years of effort, he completed the work that had been his life's dream, and for which he


felt all his life till then had been an apprenticeship: a translation and exegesis, or Tafsir, of the Qur'an in


English. He continued to serve Islam till his death in Spain on February 23, 1992.


*Sources: 'Islam at the crossroads', & 'The road to Mecca' by Muhammad Asad.


Jeffrey Lang*


Professor of Mathematics at the University of Kansas & former atheist


(Like a vast magnificent ocean, it lures you deeper and deeper into its dazzling waves until you


are swept into it. But instead of drowning in a sea of darkness, as described above, you find


yourself immersed in an ocean of divine light and mercy.....as I read the Qur’an and prayed the


Islamic prayers, a door to my heart was unsealed and I was immersed in an overwhelming


tenderness. Love became more permanent and real than the earth beneath my feet; its power


restored me and made it so that even I could feel love … I was happy enough to have found faith


in a sensible religion. But I never expected to be touched by such intoxicating mercy.)


Jeffrey Lang is an American convert to Islam and former atheist. He is the author of two best selling


works:' Struggling to Surrender' & 'Even Angels Ask: Journey to Islam in America'.


'It was a tiny room with no furniture, and there was nothing on its grayish-white walls. Its only


adornment was the predominantly red-and-white patterned carpet that covered the floor. There


was a small window, like a basement window, above and facing us, filling the room with brilliant


light. We were in rows; I was in the third. There were only men, no women, and all of us were


sitting on our heels and facing the direction of the window.


It felt foreign. I recognized no one. Perhaps I was in another country. We bowed down uniformly,


our faces to the floor. It was serene and quiet, as if all sound had been turned off. All at once, we


sat back on our heels. As I looked ahead, I realized that we were being led by someone in front


who was off to my left, in the middle, below the window. He stood alone. I only had the briefest


glance at his back. He was wearing a long white gown, and on his head was a white scarf with a


red design. And that is when I would awaken.'


During ten years of his atheist life, he was to see the same dream several times. He would not be


disturbed by the dream, however, for he would feel strangely comfortable when he awoke. It was at the


University of San Francisco, where he met a Muslim student who attended his mathematics class. He


was soon to develop a friendship with him and his family. And it was much later that one of the family


members handed him a copy of the Qur’an.


He was not looking for a religion. Nevertheless, he started reading the Qur’an, but with a strong


prejudice. 'You cannot simply read the Qur’an, not if you take it seriously. You either have


surrendered to it already or you fight it. It attacks tenaciously, directly, personally; it debates,


criticizes, shames, and challenges. From the outset it draws the line of battle, and I was on the


other side.' Thus he found himself in an interesting battle. 'I was at a severe disadvantage, for it


became clear that the Author knew me better than I knew myself.'..... 'The Qur’an was always


way ahead of my thinking; it was erasing barriers I had built years ago and was addressing my


queries.' He fought vigorously with objections and questions, but it was apparent that he was loosing


the battle. 'I was being led, working my way into a corner that contained only one choice.'


It was early 80’s, When he discovered a small place at the basement of a church where few Muslim


students made their daily prayers. After much struggle in his mind, he came up with enough courage to


go and visit that place, and to declare the shahada, the proclamation of a new life – 'I bear witness


that there is no God but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His messenger.'


Then, he was invited to participate in prayer. He stood up in rows with other students behind a prayer


leader named 'Ghassan', and started following them in prayer - 'We bowed down in prostration with


our faces on the red-and-white carpet. It was serene and quiet, as if the sound had been turned


off. And then we sat back on our heels again. As I looked ahead, I could see Ghassan, off to my


left, in the middle, below the window that was flooding the room with light. He was alone,


without a row. He was wearing a long white gown and on his head was a white scarf with a red


design'.


'The dream! I screamed inwardly. The dream exactly! I had forgotten it completely, and now I


was stunned and frightened. Am I dreaming? I wondered. Will I awaken? I tried to focus on what


was happening to determine whether I was asleep. A rush of cold flowed through my body,


making me shudder. My God, this is real! Then the coldness subsided, succeeded by gentle


warmth radiating from within. Tears welled up in my eyes.'


Thus Dr. Lang’s converted from one who challenged the existence of God, to a firm believer in God!


From a warrior who fought a fierce battle against the Qur’an, to one who surrendered to it. And like all


Muslim reverts, Dr. Lang felt that he was favored by God’s mercy and that it was God Himself who


directed him to Islam. 'I perceived that God was always near, directing my life, creating the


circumstances and opportunities to choose, yet always leaving the crucial choices to me. I was


awestruck by the realization of the intimacy and love that reveals, not because we deserve it, but


because it is always there and all we have to do is turn to Him to receive it. I cannot say with


certainty what the meaning of that vision was, but I could not help seeing in it a sign, a favor, and


a new chance.'


Lang performs the daily five-time prayers regularly and finds much spiritual satisfaction. He finds the


Fajr [per-dawn] prayer as one of the most beautiful and moving rituals in Islam.


To the question how he finds it so captivating when the recitation of the Qur'an is in Arabic, which is


totally foreign to him, he responds; 'Why is a baby comforted by his mother’s voice?' He said


reading the Qur'an gave him a great deal of comfort and strength in difficult times. From there on, faith


was a matter of practice for Lang’s spiritual growth.


On the other hand, Lang pursued a career in mathematics. He received his master’s and doctoral


degrees from Purdue University. Lang said that he had always been fascinated by mathematics. 'Math


is logical. It consists of using facts and figures to find concrete answers'...... 'That is the way my


mind works, and it is frustrating when I deal with things that do not have concrete


answers.'….'Having a mind that accepts ideas on their factual merit makes believing in a religion


difficult because most religions require acceptance by faith'.....'Islam appeals to man’s reasoning'.


*From: Dr. Jeffrey Lang, “Struggling to Surrender”, Beltsville, 1994


Dr. Jeffrey Lang, “Even Angels Ask”, Beltsville, 1997......


http://www.welcome-back.org


Dr. Murad Hofmann*


A former German diplomat and NATO officer


(I began to see Islam with its own eyes, as the unadulterated, pristine belief in the one and only,


the true God, Who does not beget, and was not begotten, Whom nothing and nobody resembles


… In place of the qualified deism of a tribal God and the constructions of a divine Trinity, the


Qur’an showed me the most lucid, most straightforward, the most abstract - thus historically


most advanced – and least anthropomorphic concept of God.'


'The Qur’an’s ontological statements, as well as its ethical teachings, impressed me as


profoundly plausible, “as good as gold,” so there was no room for even the slightest doubt about


the authenticity of Muhammad’s prophetic mission. People who understand human nature


cannot fail to appreciate the infinite wisdom of the “Dos and Don’ts” handed down from God to


man in the form of the Qur’an.)


Dr. Hofmann,was born as a Catholic in Germany in 1931. He was Director of Information for NATO in


Brussels from 1983 to 1987. He was posted as German ambassador to Algeria in 1987 and then to


Morocco in 1990 where he served for four years. He accepted Islam in 1980, and performed umrah


[Lesser Pilgrimage] in 1982 and Hajj [Pilgrimage] in 1992.


During his college years in New York in 1951. He had a serious car accident. After doing surgery on his


chin and lower hip, the hospital surgeon comforted him saying: 'Under normal circumstances, no one


survives an accident like that. God has something special in mind for you, my friend!'. He


wondered what could be the meaning of the surgeon’s remark. He came to know it one day, but much


later. 'Finally, thirty years later, on the very day I professed my faith in Islam, the true meaning of


my survival became clear to me.'


In 1961 when he was posted to Algeria as Attaché in the German Embassy, he witnessed the cruelty


and massacre that the Algerian population endured. 'I witnessed the patience and resilience of the


Algerian people in the face of extreme suffering, their overwhelming discipline during Ramadan,


their confidence of victory, as well as their humanity amidst misery.' He felt it was their religion


that made them so, and therefore, he started studying their religious book – the Qur’an. 'I have never


stopped reading it, to this very day.'


'What I experienced is so blissfully Islamic in so many places … is the tangible effect which


Islamic harmony, the Islamic way of life, and the Islamic treatment of space leave on both heart


and mind.'


Perhaps more than all of these what made a significant impact on his quest for the truth was his


thorough knowledge of Christian history and doctrines. He found it difficult for him to accept that the


mankind is burdened with the “original sin” and that God had to have his own son tortured and


murdered on the cross in order to save his own creations. 'I began to realize how monstrous, even


blasphemous it is to imagine that God could have been fallen short in his creation; that he could


have been unable to do anything about the disaster supposedly caused by Adam and Eve without


begetting a son, only to have him sacrificed in such a bloody fashion; that God might suffer for


mankind, His creation.'


He went back to the very basic question of the existence of God. After analyzing works done by


philosophers, such as Wittgenstein, Pascal, Swinburn, and Kant, he came to an intellectual conviction


of the existence of God. The next logical question he faced with was how God communicates to


human beings so that they can be guided. This led him to acknowledge the need for revelations. But


what contains the truth – Judeo-Christian scriptures or Islam?


He found the answer to this question, when he came across the following verse of the Qur’an: "…no


bearer of burdens shall bear the burdens of another" (Holy Qur'an 6:164,17:15,35:18, 39:7, 53:38)


This verse opened up his eyes and provided the answer to his dilemma. Clearly and unambiguously for


him, it rejected the ideas of the burden of 'original sin' and the expectation of 'intercession' by the


saints. 'A Muslim lives in a world without clergy and without religious hierarchy; when he prays


he does not pray via Jesus, Mary, or other interceding saints, but directly to God – as a fully


emancipated believer – and this is a religion free of mysteries.' According to Hofmann, 'A Muslim


is the emancipated believer par excellence'.Dr. Hofmann continued his professional career as a


German diplomat and NATO officer for fifteen years after he became Muslim. The German


government distributed his book 'Diary of a German Muslim' to all German foreign missions in the


Muslim countries as an analytical tool. Professional duties did not prevent him from practicing his


religion. He would politely refuse offers of alcohol. As a Foreign Service officer, he occasionally had to


arrange working lunch for foreign guests. He would be participating in those luncheons with an empty


plate in front of him during Ramadan. In 1995, he voluntarily resigned from the Foreign Service to


dedicate himself to Islamic causes.


He has authored several books on Islam, including (Journey to Makkah). and (Islam: The Alternative) .


Many of his books and essays focus on Islam's place in the West and, after Sep.11th , in particular, in the


United states. He is one of the signatories of (A common word between you and me) an open letter by


Islamic scholars to Christian leaders, calling for peace and understanding


* From: Dr. Murad Hofmann,“Journety to Makkah”, Beltsville, 1998


Dr. Murad Hofmann,“Islam: The Alternative”, Beltsville, 1999


http://www.usislam.org


Yusuf Islam [Cat Stevens]*


From Musician to Muslim by Allah's Will


(Man is created to be God's deputy on earth, and it is important to realize the obligation to rid


ourselves of all illusions and to make our lives a preparation for the next life. Anybody who


misses this chance is not likely to be given another, to be brought back again and again, because it


says in Qur'an Majeed that when man is brought to account, he will say, "O Lord, send us back


and give us another chance." The Lord will say, "If I send you back you will do the same.)


He was a teenager when he became a big star, and was indulged with liquor and drugs. After a year of


financial success and 'high' living, he became very ill, contracted TB and had to be hospitalized.


'It was then that I started to think: What was to happen to me? Was I just a body, and my goal in


life was merely to satisfy this body? I realized now that this calamity was a blessing given to me


by Allah, a chance to open my eyes.'


Another change came in the form of a near-death experience, Stevens had gone swimming at Malibu


Beach, and after a half-hour could barely stay afloat in the perilous currents of the Pacific Ocean. He


attempted to swim to land, but the sea was too strong. He realized he was going to drown and he called


out to God. Miraculously the tide swiftly turned, a sudden wave lifted him and he swam easily back to


shore.


His inner faith revealed itself further when his elder brother David gave him a copy of the 'Qur’an'. It


provided the key to the answers he had been looking for: 'It was the timeless nature of the message',


he said, 'the words all seemed strangely familiar yet so unlike anything I had ever read before'.


Privately, Stevens started applying Islam’s spiritual values to his own life; he began praying directly to


God and gradually cut down drinking, clubs and parties. He retreated from the music business and


finally embraced Islam in 1977, changing his name to 'Yusuf Islam'.


While some fans were baffled and dismayed by his decision, his close family respected him for his


spiritual conviction and were relieved. According to Yusuf, 'The moment I became a Muslim, I


found peace.'


The Qur'an:


'When I received the book, a guidance that would explain everything to me - who I was; what


was the purpose of life; what was the reality and what would be the reality; and where I came


from - I realized that this was the true religion; religion not in the sense the West understands it,


not the type for only your old age. In the West, whoever wishes to embrace a religion and make it


his only way of life is deemed a fanatic. I was not a fanatic, I was at first confused between the


body and the soul.'


'I realized that everything belongs to God, that slumber does not overtake Him. He created


everything. At this point I began to lose the pride in me, because hereto I had thought the reason


I was here was because of my own greatness. But I realized that I did not create myself, and the


whole purpose of my being here was to submit to the teaching that has been perfected by the


religion we know as Al-Islam. At this point I started discovering my faith. I felt I was a Muslim.'


'On reading the Qur'an, I now realized that all the Prophets sent by God brought the same


message. Why then were the Jews and Christians different? I know now how the Jews did not


accept Jesus as the Messiah and that they had changed His Word. Even the Christians


misunderstand God's Word and called Jesus the son of God.'


'Everything made so much sense. This is the beauty of the Qur'an; it asks you to reflect and


reason, and not to worship the sun or moon but the One Who has created everything.'


With the advent of his marriage and the birth of his first child, Hasanah, He turned his attention to


education,Yusuf opened and funded the Islamia Primary School in London, which, fifteen years later,


made history by becoming the first government funded Muslim school in England.


As a multimillionaire he could have spent the rest of his life in luxurious obscurity, except that his


concern for humanitarian and charitable causes took him back into the public spotlight. During the


African famine in 1984, he helped establish Muslim Aid, an international relief organization. Today,


Yusuf still donates vast amounts of his royalty income to charity. He has for almost three decades


concerned himself with education and fund-raising for the plight of those much less fortunate. His U.K.


and United Nations registered charity, Small Kindness, provides humanitarian relief as well as social


and educational programs to countless orphans and needy families in the Balkans, Iraq, Indonesia and


other regions.


*Sources: How I came to Islam - by Yusuf Islam


www.islamtomorrow.com ] , www.yusufislam.com/biography


Rajaa [Roger] Garaudy*


French Philosopher, former Marxism, Politician


(The only real being is God, in his unity and transcendence, in his creative act.)


Born to Catholic and atheist parents in Marseille, Garaudy converted at age 14 and became a


Protestant. During World War II, Garaudy joined the French resistance. He was imprisoned in Djelfa,


Algeria, as a prisoner of war of Vichy France. Then he and his fellow prisoners were saved from


summary execution because the Arab guards defied orders to shoot them. He subsequently learned that


they owed their lives to the Muslims Guards whose religion forbade them to fire at unarmed men.


Their unconditional obedience to a higher authority than their French commandant deeply


impressed him and prepared the ground for his conversion over forty years later.


Following the war. Garaudy joined the French Communist Party. As a political candidate he became a


senator. Then a leading party theoretician and authored scores of scholarly works.


How did he came to Islam?


His conviction that 'Western civilization has reached an impasse from which neither Communism


nor Christianity can provide an escape route.' The suicidal myth of Western-style progress and


growth has led to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; the ever-increasing gulf between


rich and poor; and the ruthless exploitation of the world's mineral resources. In 1979, Garaudy wrote


Appel au vivants ('Summons to the Living') in which he argued that there was still time to find a


solution by listening to the age-old wisdom of non-Europeans and how they perceived their relationship


with nature, other people and God. This was followed in 1981 by L'Islam habite notre avenir ('Islam


inhabits our future'), in which he argued persuasively that Islam is a living force with a vital


contribution to make to tomorrow's world. He identified that contribution as 'transcendence and


community', two essential dimensions which Western man has lost because of the exaltation of


individualism.


Four years later, in Biographie du XXème siècle ('Biography of the 20th Century'), he defined


transcendence as recognition of man's dependence in relation to God the creator, and thus of absolute


values. The philosophical itinerary which led him to this belief, and the meaning which he attached to


the words 'God the creator' are the subject of the rest of the paper.'The West's false view of man and


its consequences.' Garaudy maintains that the root cause of the present global crisis is a 'false view of


'man' which has dominated Western thought since the sixteenth century, and which may in part be


traced back even further. The seeds were sown in ancient Greece when Plato instituted a radical


dualism between body and soul, and the sensory and the intelligible..Then in Galileo's conception of


the world, mathematics constituted the veritable 'being in itself' of nature....Slightly later, in France,


Descartes formulated his celebrated dictum,'I think therefore I am'. Garaudy maintains that


Descartes's highly individualistic philosophy underlies modern Western culture and has led to man's


progressive alienation from nature and to the fragmentation of society.


In the eighteenth century the links between economics and ethics were severed, and it came to be


regarded as a pure science like mechanics or physics. Hence the relationships between human beings


and societies were assimilated to those between things, and were held like them to be governed by


necessity.....Science and technology have become ends in themselves rather than means to an end,


and man and his environment have become subservient to their autonomous development.....This


resulted in economic growth coming to be viewed as an end in itself divorced from all reflection


on the meaning and purpose of life.


Individualism and positivism are not the only causes of the global crisis; what Garaudy calls


'Eurocentrism' Europeans colonised the world in the conviction that they possessed the only true


culture, the only universal religion, and the only model of development; and they destroyed other


peoples and their cultures in the process.


Islam has an important contribution to make to the future of the world because it values


'transcendence and community', two vital dimensions which are lacking in contemporary Western


society. He observed that the Islamic community serves ends which go beyond it, ends fixed by God;


the community transcends the individual and God transcends the community. He was particularly


attracted to the basic principles of Islamic economics. Unlike European law which defines property


as 'the right to use and abuse', Islam asserts that 'God alone possesses'. Muslims are therefore


forbidden either to accumulate wealth or to squander it. Moreover, the institution of 'zakat', a


fixed-percentage charitable tax which is payable annually on both revenue and capital, functions


as a form of social security and in theory rules out the possibility of hereditary fortunes.


As a Communist, and later as a radical Christian, Garaudy believed in transcendence in the sense of


surpassing or rising above the present human situation, but his Marxist background made it very


difficult for him to countenance a transcendent Deity above and independent of the universe. Shortly


before his conversion, however, he appears to have become convinced that such a belief was morally


necessary and that the Islamic tradition had within it the resources for making it intellectually tenable.


So much for the moral appeal of belief in God the creator, but is such a belief intellectually viable?


Garaudy observes that the Qur'an is God's Word, and in describing the function of the mihrab


or prayer niche in a mosque, the niche does not shelter any statue or image, but it signifies, by


this very absence, the God who is here honored, a God everywhere present but everywhere


invisible.'The sole but invisible reality.' According to the Qur'an everything is a manifestation of


God. There is no reality apart from him.


He defends Ibn Arabi[interpreter of Holy Qur'an] against the charge of pantheism. Pantheism consists


in considering God as the additive totality of beings. This is not the case at all for Ibn Arabi; for him,


this additive totality is nothing other than the sum total of the illusions born from the limited camera


work of individuals. It has no reality in itself. 'The only real being is God.'


When he was on the verge of converting, he had feared losing 'Jesus' message. He had been deeply


anxious lest his fellow-Muslims failed to accept the mystery of love, which he held had become


through Jesus the warp and woof of every life. 'To fear God is not be afraid of his punishment, it is


to fear displeasing him, and that is what is meant by love'


*Source: 'From marxism to islam': the philosophical itinerary of Roger Garaudy by: Neal Robinson


http://rogergaraudy.blogspot.com


Abdul-Karim Germanus*


A Hungarian professor of Oriental Studies


(I am a European man who didn't find my home in being enslaved to gold, power, or domination.


I was influenced by the simplicity of Islam.....


Islam transcends by elevating humans from an animal state to the height of refined civilization,


and I hope, or rather I expect, that Islam will once more be able to achieve this miracle at the


time when great darkness will surround us.)


Germanus was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1884 and was raised as a Christian. He traveled to


Istanbul to study Turkish. He excelled in the study of languages, and, in 1912, was appointed professor


of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish as well as Islamic history at the Hungarian Royal Academy in


Budapest. He was later appointed to the Department of Oriental Studies at the University of Economics


in Budapest.


The Bengali-Indian poet 'Tagore' invited him in 1928 to teach Islamic Studies in University in Bengal.


He stayed in India for several years where he publicized his conversion to Islam in the Great Delhi


Mosque. Henceforth, he was known Abdul-Karim. He was given the privilege of giving the weekly


Friday sermon at the mosque. He enjoyed friendship with the famous Pakistani Muslim poet,


Muhammad Iqbal. They would have long conversations about the Christian missionaries. [Germanus


believed that the problem lays in the European Christian missionaries propaganda, whereas Iqbal


believed that the problem lays in Muslim's lack of unity and opposition to anti-Islam missionaries.]


He visited the holy sites in Makkah and Madinah in 1935. He wrote a memoir of his journey to the holy


sites in Hungarian called, 'Allahu Akbar', which was translated into several languages. He went on Hajj


for a second time in 1939.


Gerrmanus wrote about Islam in various European publications. (One thing attracted me to Islam, it


is the essence of all things, and that thing is the religion of purity, the religion of cleanliness, of


both the body and spirit, and social behavior and manners and the human feeling....The Muslim


world will keep its true essence through its spirituality and its supreme example. And Islam


always preserves its foundations of freedom, fraternity, and equality between all human beings.)


And he explains the moment of his conversion as: 'It was a moment of awakening for me because


Islam is the true religion. Enlightened minds and free thinkers find tolerance in Islam, in its


doctrine and in the Shari`ah [law]. They find truth is Islam which convinces them of its validity.


With Islam, free thinkers set themselves loose from the oppression of traditions).


He worked at the University of Budapest as a professor of history and civilization for more than 40


years. He published several research papers calling for the revival of classical Arabic in the Arab world.


He dreamed of a time when all Arab countries would speak the same form of Arabic that would tie


Arabs to their rich heritage and history. Throughout his academic career, Germanus waged a war with


European Orientalists who supported colonialism. He would use evidence and rational arguments,


nevertheless, he was confronted with much antagonism. And he was fired from the university on the


grounds that his attitude was not appropriate.


In 1962, he was elected to the Scholarly Organization of Iraq as an overseas member, also, he was


elected as a member of the Arabic language academies in both Cairo and Damascus. Then back home


in Hungary. He established an organization which ran Muslim's affairs in Hungary and which was able


to convince the Hungarian government to recognize Islam as one of the official state religions.


Germanus wrote many books, [The Greek, Arabic Literature in Hungarian, Lights of the East,


Uncovering the Arabian Peninsula, Between Intellectuals, The History of Arabic Literature, The


History of the Arabs, Modern Movements in Islam, Studies in the Grammatical Structure of the Arabic


Language, Journeys of Arabs, Pre-Islamic Poetry, Great Arabic Literature, Guidance From the Light of


the Crescent (a personal memoir), An Adventure in the Desert, Arab Nationalism, Allahu Akbar,


Mahmoud Timour and Modern Arabic Literature, The Great Arab Poets, and The Rise of Arab Culture.]


Germanus passed away in 1979 after having served the cause of Islam and Muslims for nearly 50 years.


*Source:The Moment of Awakening A Hungarian Orientalist Finds Islam By Yasser Hejazi


http://muhannad.blogspot.com


El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz [Malcolm X]*


African American Muslim minister, public speaker, and human rights activist.


(I am a Muslim and... my religion makes me be against all forms of racism. It keeps me from


judging any man by the color of his skin. It teaches me to judge him by his deeds and his


conscious behavior. And it teaches me to be for the rights of all human beings...)


Malcolm X was a leader of the African American people, was known before his conversion to Islam by


the devil and ((Ditroit Red)) as the leader of racist extremists in his hostility to the whites, but he


changed his approach after his conversion to Islam, after his journey of pilgrimage to the sacred land


'Mecca' when he was flooded with brotherhood by white Muslims under the sky of Islam in 1964


The trip proved life altering....he sent messages to his followers saying:


'Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as


is practiced by people of all colors and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of


Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I


have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by


people of all colors.'


'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 together, irrespective of their color.'


He returned to the United States with a new outlook on integration and a new hope for the future. This


time when Malcolm spoke, instead of just preaching to African-Americans, he had a message for all


races. He was shot dead onstage, in 1965.


He has been called one of the greatest and most influential African Americans in history, and in 1998,


Time named 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' one of the ten most influential nonfiction books of the


20th century.


*Source: Majaliat al-faisal, no. 270


Abdullah Quilliam* [William]


English solicitor &


Founder of First Mosque & Islamic center in England.


(Islam is erected on the Unity of God, the unity of His religion, and the unity of the Muslims.


History demonstrates that the True-Believers were never defeated while they remained united,


but only when disunion crept into their ranks.)


Few religious figures have championed their faith the way this man did. He did so despite often facing


hostility from his own countrymen. Born in 1856, Quilliam was the son of a wealthy watchmaker. He


became a solicitor.


In 1882, he traveled to the south of France then to Morocco and Algeria and it was there that his


fascination with Islam began. At the age of 31 he converted to Islam, and changed his name to


Abdullah. Thus was just the start of his loud and proud association with Islam. He soon found he had


the knack of convincing others of its merits. He first began holding lectures on his new religion and


then founded the Liverpool Mosque and Institute in the small semi on '8 Brougham Terrace, West


Derby Street', in 1889.


Within 10 years, he assembled a following of about 150 Muslims, almost entirely of British converts.


Scientists and professionals were among Quilliam’s group, along with his sons and his mother, who had


spent most of her life as a Christian activist. And he produced two journals, 'The Crescent' and 'The


Islamic Review', on a printing press in the mosque’s cellar. Both were circulated internationally.


He also founded the Medina Home, which cared for illegitimate children and found them foster


parents. He set up the Muslim College, a weekly debating society and also wrote a book of Muslim


hymns in English. He also wrote a book, 'The Faith of Islam' that was translated into 13 languages, with


three editions published. Quilliam proudly said that it had been read by Queen Victoria and the ruler of


Egypt. But not everyone appreciated Quilliam’s vigour. Soon he was evicted from his house by his


landlord, who took exception to his rejection of Christianity. The timing of his book on Islam


compounded the vitriolic hatred that some in the Christian community felt for him.


According to Professor Ansari, Quilliam paid a price for his stance. 'Of course, he was lampooned,


but it showed that he was a courageous man, as well as a controversial figure. Although other


English people had converted, they tended to keep a low profile. Quilliam on the other hand was


much more forthright and challenging, making him a high-profile public figure in the process.'


His efforts to promote Islam brought him praise and powerful friends throughout the Muslim world.


The Shah of Persia made him a consul to his country. In 1894, Sultan Abdul Hamid II, the last Ottoman


emperor, gave Quilliam the title of “Sheikh al-Islam of Britain”, leader of British Muslims. The Sultan


of Afghanistan gave him a £2,500 “personal gift”, to help him continue his good works.


By the turn of the century, Quilliam had developed ambitious plans to build a mosque from scratch,


complete with a dome and minarets. But he left England to the east on 1908, then returned in 1914


under the name of Haroun Leon. He spent much of his time at Qnchan on the Isle of Man.


He died in London in 1932, and was buried in Brookwood Cemetery, near Woking. The prominent


Anglo-Muslims Abdullah Yusuf Ali, Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall [who each translated the


Qur'an], and Lord Headley were all later buried near him.


In 1996 the ' Abdullah Quilliam society' was formed to maintain his legacy, by western Muslim


converters, raising funds to restore 8-10 Brougham Terrace to re-open the historic mosque and establish


an educational center. And the 'Quilliam foundation', a thinktank aimed at challenging extremist


Islamist ideologies, was launched in 2008.


* Source:http://abdullahquilliam.wordpress.com


Lord Headley Al-Farooq*


English Engineer, Statesman, and Author


(….Charity, tolerance and broad-mindedness in the Muslim faith come nearer to what Christ


himself taught than do the somewhat narrow tenets of the various Christian Churches.)


The 5th Baron of Headley [Sir Rowland George Allanson], was born in 1855, educated in Cambridge,


served in the army. And although an engineer by profession he had wide literary tastes. He was twice


awarded the Bessemer Premium of the Society of Engineers as also the Silver Medals of the Royal


Scottish Society of Arts and of the Institute of Civil Engineers of Ireland. Later he was elected


President of the Society of Engineers, London.


Being brought up as a Protestant, he studied Roman Catholicism and was struck by what he called their


'believe this or be damned' attitude. 'It is the intolerance of those professing the Christian religion,


which more than anything is responsible for my secession. I was reared in the strict and narrow


forms of the Low Church party. Later, I lived in many Roman Catholic countries, including


Ireland. The intolerance of one sect of Christians towards other sects holding some different form


of the same faith, of which I witnessed many instances, disgusted me. …'


He announced his conversion to Islam at the hand of Khwaja Kamal-ud-Din in 1913, and adopted the


Muslim name of Shaikh Rahmatullah al-Farooq. In those days, conversion to Islam meant incurring the


wrath and displeasure of family, friends and society, and in the case of those belonging to the higher


levels of society, like Lord Headley, it meant losing the respect and reputation in which one was held.


Not caring for any such worldly loss, Lord Headley boldly and openly proclaimed himself a Muslim


and served the cause of Islam till his death in 1935.


As a member of the aristocracy, Lord Headley mixed with the nobility and royalty of England. And he


wasted no opportunity to explain Islam in those circles. At one after-dinner speech, attended by various


persons, he spoke on the life of the Prophet Muhammad. On another occasion he explained that he had


been a Muslim for over 20 years: 'It is possible that some of my friends may imagine that I have


been influenced by Mohammedans; but it is not the case, for my convictions are solely the


outcome of many years of thought. My actual conversations with educated Muslims on the


subject of religion only commenced a few weeks ago and need I say that I am overjoyed to find


that all my theories and conclusions are entirely in accord with Islam? Even my friend Khwaja


Kamal-ud-Din has never tried to influence me in the slightest degree. He has been a veritable


living concordance, and has patiently explained and translated portions of the Qur'an which did


not appear quite clear to me and in this respect he showed the true spirit of the Muslim


missionary, which is never to force or even to persuade.'


At the old age of 70, he undertook long journeys to Egypt, South Africa, and India for the cause of


Islam. He performed the Haj [pilgrimage] to Mecca in 1923, and in 1927 presided over the


deliberations of the All-India Tabligh Conference, which was held at Delhi. He was President of the


British Muslim Society, London, and Chairman of Woking Mission Trust as well as the Woking


Mosque Trust. During his visit in 1928 to Hyderabad he succeeded in raising funds to build a Mosque


in London and gratefully died before building it.


He wrote several small booklets about Islam and many articles in the monthly Islamic Review, the


journal of the Woking Mission. He was also the author of several books, most well known amongst


them: 'A Western Awakening to Islam'.


*Sources:http://www.wokingmuslim.org , http://media.isnet.org


Ibrahim Khalil Ahmad* [Philobus]


Formerly Egyptian Coptic Priest and Missionary


(I am especially attracted by the concept of unity of God, which is the most important feature of


Islam. God is only One. Nothing is like Him. This belief makes me the servant of God only and of


no one else. Oneness of God liberates man from servitude to any human being and that is true


freedom......I also like very much the rule of forgiveness in Islam and the direct relationship


between God and His servants.)


Ibrahim Khalil Ahmad [formerly Ibrahim Khalil Philobus], was born in Alexandria in 1919 and was


sent to the American Mission schools and got his diploma from Asiut University. He specialized in


religious studies as a prelude to join the Faculty of Theology which he got recommendation from three


churches to join in 1944. There he was taught by American and Egyptian teachers, '...studied Islam


and all the methods through which we could shake the faith of Muslims and raise misconceptions


in their understanding of their own religion'.


In 1952 he got his master degree from Princeton University in the USA, and was appointed as a teacher


in the Faculty of Theology in Asiut, teaching Islam! During that period, he decided to read other than


missionaries books on Islam. 'I had so much faith in myself that I was confirmed to read the other


point of view.' The result was, however, exactly the reverse! 'My position began to shake and I


started to feel an internal strong struggle, and I discovered the falsehood of everything I had


studied and preached to the people'. But he tried to overcome this internal crisis and continue his


work!


In 1954, a missionary conference was held in Aswan, and he spoke all the repeated misconceptions


against Islam; and at the end of the speech, the internal crisis came out and he started to revise his


position. 'I began to ask myself: Why should I say and do all these things which I know for sure I


am a liar, as this is not the truth?'. As he walked in public garden, he heard a verse of the Qur'an on


the radio. It said: “Say, [O Muhammad], It has been revealed to me that a group of the jinn


listened and said, Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur'an.” (Holy Qur’an 72:1-2) “And when


we heard the guidance, we believed in it. And whoever believes in his Lord will not fear


deprivation or burden.” (Holy Qur’an 72:13)


That's when he felt deep comfort, and spent the whole night reading the Qur'an, thinking and


meditating on these verses : “If We had sent down this Qur'an upon a mountain, you would have


seen it humbled and coming apart from fear of Allah .And these examples We present to the


people that perhaps they will give thought.” (Holy Qur’an 59:21)


“ You will surely find the most intense of the people in animosity toward the believers [to be] the


Jews and those who associate others[in warship] with Allah ; and you will find the nearest of


them in affection to the believers those who say, We are Christians. That is because among them


are priests and monks and because they are not arrogant-82-And when they hear what has been


revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes overflowing with tears because of what they have


recognized of the truth. They say, Our Lord, we have believed, so register us among the


witnesses-83-And when they hear what has been revealed to the Messenger, you see their eyes


overflowing with tears because of what they have recognized of the truth. They say, "Our Lord,


we have believed, so register us among the witnesses.” (Holy Qur’an, 5:82-84)


And “Those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered prophet, whom they find written in what


they have of the Torah and the Gospel, who enjoins upon them what is right and forbids them


what is wrong and makes lawful for them the good things and prohibits for them the evil and


relieves them of their burden and the shackles which were upon them. So they who have believed


in him, honored him, supported him and followed the light which was sent down with him - it is


those who will be the successful-157-Say, [O Muhammad], "O mankind, indeed I am the


Messenger of Allah to you all, [from Him] to whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the


earth. There is no deity except Him; He gives life and causes death." So believe in Allah and His


Messenger, the unlettered prophet, who believes in Allah and His words, and follow him that you


may be guided.” (Holy Qur’an, 7:157-158)


It was at that night, he took the decision. He resigned and returned to Cairo, where he met Dr.


Muhammad Al Jamal and prepared for a comparative study of 'The Qur’an, the Torah and the Bible', all


along with the translation of the Qur’an to be published in America.


It was not until Christmas 1959, that he declared officially his conversion to Islam by a telegram to Dr.


Thompson, head of the American Mission in Egypt. Seven of his former colleagues in the mission had


tried their best to persuade him to return, and when an old friend wept very much in front of him, he


recited before him the verses from the [Qur'an 5:82-84] which we mentioned above, and he said to him:


'You should have wept in humiliation to God on hearing the Qur'an and believe in the truth


which you know but you refuse.' And so his official conversion to Islam was in January 1960.


His wife left him, but all of his four children joined him and embraced Islam. The most enthusiastic


among them was the eldest 'Isaac' who changed his name to 'Osman', who is now a professor in


Sorbonne University in Paris teaching oriental studies and psychology, and writes in ‘Le Monde’


magazine. Then his wife agreed to come back in 1966, provided that she keeps her religion.'I accepted


this, because in Islam there is no compulsion in religion. I said to her: I do not want you to


become a Muslim for my sake but only after you are convinced. She feels now that she believes in


Islam but she cannot declare this for fear of her family'.


In 1973, he performed Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). And since 1961, He had published a number of


books on Islam and the methods of the missionaries and the orientalists against it. Also he held


seminars in the universities and charitable societies preaching Islam. 'I received an invitation from


Sudan in 1974 where I held many seminars. My time is fully used in the service of Islam.' And


now preparing a comparative study about women in the three Divine religions with the object of


highlighting the status of women in Islam.