Believe It or Not: You were Born Muslim!

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 United States,
Islam is said to be the nation’s fastest-growing religion. One expert estimates that
25,000 people a year become Muslims in this country; some clerics say they have
seen conversion rates quadruple since Sept 11.

Ironically for a religion that is routinely bashed for “subjugating” and “oppressing” its
female followers, the number of female reverts to Islaam outnumber the males 4:1!

The fact that more and more people are finding their way to Islaam, notwithstanding
the relentless propaganda, deliberate misinformation and outright prejudice against
it, never ceases to amaze me.

How do these people navigate in the darkness to find the light of 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 Aadam their
descendants and made them testify concerning themselves. Saying: Am I
not your Lord? They said: “Yes, we testify to it.” (This) in case you say on
the Day of Judgement, “We were unaware of this.” Or in case you say: It
was our ancestors who made partners (with Allaah) and we are only their
descendants…[Surah Al-A’raaf 7:172-173]

Explaining this verse, the Prophet [SAW] said: When Allaah created Aadam [AS] , He
took a covenant from him …then He extracted from him all of his descendants who
would be born until the end of the world, generation after generation and spread
them out in front of Him in order to take a covenant from them.

He spoke to them face to face saying: Am I not your Lord? And they all replied: Yes,
we testify to it.

Allaah then explained why He had all of mankind bear witness that He was their
Creator and the only true God worthy of worship. He said: That was in case you
(mankind) should say on the Day of Resurrection, “Surely we were unaware of all
this. We had no idea that You were our God.” [Silsilah al ahadeeth as Saheehah,
Narrated by ibn Abbaas, collected by Imaam Ahmad]

This is the reason why people who adopt Islaam are said to revert instead of convert,
because they are going back to their original nature -- the one they were naturally
created with -- which is automatically aligned with the Universe, its Creator and His
Laws; as opposed to simply exchanging one set of beliefs for another.

Reverts to Islaam testify that this inner inclination to search for the Truth, to know
and follow it is a major factor in their adopting the faith. It is interesting to see some
of the reasons cited by reverts for adopting Islaam:

Islaamic Monotheism
“The Christian sect of Athanasians insistently inculcates the tenet that Christianity is
based on a belief in three gods (Trinity), that a slightest doubt as to this belief will
lead one to immediate perdition; and that a person who wishes to attain salvation in
this world and the next should definitely hold a belief in the three gods: God, the
Son of God, and the Holy Ghost.

When I became a Muslim, I received a letter, which said: “By becoming a Muslim you
have damned yourself to perdition. No one can save you. For you deny the divinity of
God.” The poor man [who wrote that letter] thought that I no longer believed in God,
not knowing that when Jesus had begun to preach, he stated the unity of God and he
never claimed to be His son.

[Lord Headley al-Farooq; British diplomat, engineer]

An answer for every question:

“I would always search for causes and purposes for everything. I would anticipate
logical explanations for them. On the other hand, the explanations provided by
priests and other Christian men of religion did not satisfy me. Most of the time,
instead of giving satisfactory answers to my questions, they would dismiss the
matter with evasive prevarications such as, “We cannot understand these things.
They are divine secrets” and “They are beyond the grasp of the human mind.”

Upon this I decided to study, on the one hand, Oriental religions, and on the other
hand, books written by famous philosophers. The books written by these
philosophers always dealt with such subjects as protoplasms, atoms, molecules, and
particles, and did not even touch on reflections such as “What becomes of the human
soul?” “Where does the soul go after death?” “How should we discipline our souls in
this world?”

The Islamic religion, on the other hand, treated the human subject not only within
the corporeal areas, but also along the spiritual extensions. Therefore, I chose Islam
not because I had lost my way, or only because Christianity had incurred my
displeasure, or as a result of sudden decision, but, on the contrary, after very
minutely studying it and becoming thoroughly convinced about its greatness,
singularity, solemnity and perfection

[Muhammad Alexander Russell Webb; American diplomat, author]

Direct relationship with one’s Creator:

Now I realize I can get in direct contact with God, unlike Christianity or any other
religion. As one Hindu lady told me, “You don't understand the Hindus. We believe in
one God; we use these objects (idols) to merely concentrate.” What she was saying
was that in order to reach God, one has to create associates, that are idols for the
purpose. But Islam removes all these barriers.

[Yusuf Islaam, formerly Cat Stevens]

Universality:
Islam is a religion that belongs not only to the Arabs but to the entire humanity. This
universal quality presents a sharp contrast with the Judaic religion, whose holy book
always refers to the God of Israel.

One more thing that I love in Islam is that this religion recognizes all the prophets,
makes no distinction between them and treats the believers of other religions with
compassion.

[Mahmud Gunnar Ahmad, Swedish Muslim]

Absolute equality before God, extended brotherhood:

There were tens of thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world. They were of all
colors, from blue-eyed blondes to black-skinned Africans. But we were all
participating in the same ritual, displaying a spirit of unity and brotherhood that my
experiences in America had led me to believe never could exist between the white
and non-white.

America needs to understand Islam, because this is the one religion that erases from
its society the race problem. Throughout my travels in the Muslim world, I have met,
talked to, and even eaten with people who in America would have been considered
white - but the white attitude was removed from their minds by the religion of Islam.
I have never before seen sincere and true brotherhood practiced by all colors
together, irrespective of their color.

You may be shocked by these words coming from me. But on this pilgrimage, what I
have seen, and experienced, has forced me to rearrange much of my thought-
patterns previously held, and to toss aside some of my previous conclusions. This
was not too difficult for me. Despite my firm convictions, I have always been a man
who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new
knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the
flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.

During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same
plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug - while praying to the
same God - with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was
the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words
and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the
black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana. We were truly all the same
(brothers) - because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds,
the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.

[Letter written from Makkah, by Malcolm X]

Purity of prayer:
If I were asked what impressed me most in the religion of Islam, I would probably
say the prayers, because prayers in Christianity are used wholly in begging God
(through Jesus Christ) to grant worldly favours, whereas in Islam they ar used to
give praise and thanks to Almighty God for all His blessings since He knows what is
necessary for our welfare and grants us what we need without our asking it.

[Cecilia Mahmuda Cannolly, Australian Muslim]

Women’s rights and status:

No doubt, influenced by the usual condemnation of Islam from Christian pulpits on
the subject, I picked on polygamy. At last I thought I had something; obviously
Western monogamy was an improvement on this old system. I talked of it to my
Muslim friend. He illustrated with the aid of newspaper articles how much true
monogamy there was in England, and convinced me that a limited polygamy was the
answer to the secret unions that are becoming so distressingly common in the West.
My own common sense could see that, particularly after a war, when women of a
certain age group far outnumber men, a percentage of them are destined to remain
spinsters. Did God give them life for that? I recollect that on the radio programme
known as `Dear Sir' an unmarried English girl had called for lawful polygamy, saying
she would prefer a shared married life rather than the loneliness to which she
seemed to be destined. In Islam no one is forced into a polygamous marriage, but in
a perfect religion, the opportunity must be there to meet those cases where it is
necessary.

[Mavis B Jolly, UK]

Belief in the Qur’aan as Divine Revelation:

I read as much of the Qur’aan as I could. I was immersed in it. As I read the verses
in English, I repeated to myself over and over again, this is what I have always
thought and believed. What kind of book was this? Before long I was reading the
book and crying, and reading and crying... it was as if something had overtaken
me... I forgot what I was looking for in particular, however when I came upon the
verses in Surah Baqarah 122-141 regarding Prophet Ibrahim (AS) I had found my
answer.

I had been searching for Isma'il (as), son of Prophet Ibrahim and his wife Hajarah,
who had been missing from the Hebrew brothers story. In those verses I found the
truth of religion... They say: Become Jews or Christians if ye would be guided (to
salvation). Say thou: Nay! (I would rather) the religion of Abraham the True, and he
joined not gods with Allah. Say ye: We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to
us, and to Abraham, Isma'il, Isaac, Jacob and the Tribes, and that given to Moses
and Jesus, and that given to (all) the Prophets from their Lord; We make no
difference between one another of them: and we submit to Allah." (2:135-136) As I
continued to read and cry, I became intent upon finding someone who could connect
me with others who believed in this book!

[K H Abdul Lateef, USA]

The personal example of the Prophet Muhammad [SAW]:

I accepted Islam because I admired the Prophet Muhammad.[SAW]. I had quite a
number of Muslim friends in Zanzibar, who gave me Islamic books, which I read in
secrecy from my family. I became a Muslim despite the remonstrances of my family
and the oppressions of the priests of Parsee religion, which had been my religion
until that time. I held fast to my religion and resisted against all sorts of threats.
Now I love Allaah and His last Prophet Muhammad [SAW] more than my life

[Faruq B Karai, Zanzibar]

Islaam withstands scrutiny and encourages reasoning:

Instead of asking a follower to believe in its precepts just ”because” or someone asks
them to, Islaam encourages people to think for themselves, reflect on the signs of
God in Creation and within their own selves. Little wonder then that a sizable number
of reverts are thinking people: scientists, astronomers, philosophers, doctors.

As created beings who can neither grant life nor ward off death, we owe it to
ourselves and The One Who Created Us to discover the Truth, to follow it and to
facilitate others to do the same.

[Source: All quotes from "Why I chose Islaam" and "Islaam: My choice"]