Mrs. CECILLA CANNOLY [Rashida] (Austrian)

Why did they become Muslim?

Mrs. CECILLA CANNOLY [Rashida] (Austrian)



Why did I become a Muslim?

Let me tell you sincerely that I became a Muslim without even
noticing it myself. For, at a very young age I had already completely
lost my confidence in Christianity and had begun to feel apathy
towards the Christian religion. I was curious about many religious
facts. I was disinclined to believe blindly the creed they were
trying to teach me. Why were there three gods? Why had we all
come to this world sinful, and why did we have to expiate it?
Why could we invoke Allahu ta'ala only through a priest? And what
were the meanings of all these various signs that we were being
shown and the miracles that we were being told? Whenever I asked
these questions to the teaching priests, they would become angry
and answer, "You cannot inquire about the inner natures of
the church's teachings. They are secret. All you have to do is
to believe them." And this was another thing that I would
never understand. How could one believe something whose essence
one did not know? However, in those days I did not dare divulge
these thoughts of mine. I am sure that many of today's so-called
Christians are of the same opinion as I was; they do not believe
most of the religious teachings imposed on them, yet they are
afraid to disclose it.



The older I became the farther away did I feel from Christianity,
finally breaking away from the church once and for all and beginning
to wonder whether there was a religion that taught "to worship
one single God." My entire conscience and heart told me that
there was only one God. Then, when I looked around, the events
showed me how meaningless the unintelligible miracles that priests
had been trying to teach us, and the absurd stories of saints
they had been telling us, were. Didn't everything on the earth,
human beings, beasts, forests, mountains, seas, trees, flowers
indicate that a great Creator had created them? Wasn't a newly
born baby a miracle in itself? On the other hand, the church was
striving to indoctrinate the people with the preposterous belief
that every newly born baby was a wretched, sinful creature. No,
this was impossible, a lie. Every newly born child was an innocent
slave, a creature of Allahu ta'ala. It was a miracle, and I believed
only in Allah and in the miracles He created.



Nothing in the world was inherently sinful, dirty, or ugly. I
was of this opinion, when one day my daughter came home with a
book written about Islam. My daughter and I sat together and read
the book with great attention. O my Allah, the book said exactly
as I had been thinking. Islam announced that there is one Allah
and informed that people are born as innocent creatures. Until
that time I had been entirely ignorant of Islam. In schools Islam
was an object of derision. We had been taught that that religion
was false and absurd and infused one with sloth, and that Muslims
would go to Hell. Upon reading the book, I was plunged into thoughts.
To acquire more detailed information about Islam, I visited Muslims
living in my town. The Muslims I found opened my eyes. The answers
they gave to my questions were so logical that I began to believe
that Islam was not a concocted religion as our priests had been
asserting, but a true religion of Allahu ta'ala. My daughter and
I read many other books written about Islam, were fully convinced
as to its sublimeness and veracity, and eventually embraced Islam,
both of us. I adopted the name 'Rashida', and my daughter chose
'Mahmuda' as her new name.



As for the second question that you ask me: "What aspect
of Islam do you like best?" Here is my answer:



What I like best about Islam is the nature of its prayers. In
Christianity prayers are said in order to ask for worldly blessings
such as wealth, position and honour from Allahu ta'ala through
Issa a.s.. Muslims, in contrast, express their gratitude to Allahu
ta'ala and they know that as long as they abide by their religion
and obey the commandments of Allahu ta'ala, Allahu ta'ala will
give them whatever they need without them asking for it.