I am a doctor and I come from a fanatically Catholic family. Yet
my vocational choice, medicine, provided me a career in positive,
experimental, and natural sciences, which in turn caused me to
develop a growing hatred against Christianity. With respect to
religion, I was at complete loggerheads with the other members
of my family. Yes, there was a great Creator, and I believed in
Him, i.e. Allahu ta'ala. Yet the absurdities concocted by Christians,
especially by Catholics, various mysterious gods, sons, holy ghosts,
the preposterous fibs fabricated for the purpose of proving that
Issa a.s. is the son of God, a myriad of other superstitions,
ceremonies and rites pushed me away from Christianity, instead
of attracting me towards it.
Because I held the belief in one God, I would never accept trinity,
nor would I by any means recognize Issa a.s. as the son of God.
That means to say that, long before knowing of Islam, I had already
accepted the initial half of the Kalima-i-Shahadat, i.e. the part
that says, "La ilaha il'l'Allah... (There is no God but Allah...)"
When I began to study the Islamic religion and read the Ikhlas
Sura of Qur'an al-karim, which purported, "Lo; Allahu ta'ala
is One. He is not begotten, nor does He beget. There is no being
bearing any likeness to Him," I said, "O my Allah. My
belief is exactly the same." I felt immense relief. I realized
that it was of paramount importance to study Islam more deeply.
And as I studied Islam I saw with admiration that this religion
was completely agreeable with my ideas. Islam looked on religious
men, and even on prophets 'alaihim-us-salawat', as ordinary people
like us; it did not divinize them. Giving a priest authority to
forgive people's sins was something which Islam would never accept.
The Islamic religion did not contain any superstitions, any irrational
rules, or any unintelligible subjects. The Islamic religion was
a logical one, exactly as I wanted. Contrary to the Catholics,
it did not smudge human beings with the consequences of the so-called
original sin. It enjoined physical and spiritual cleanliness on
human beings. Cleanliness, which is an essential principle in
medicine, was in Islam a commandment of Allahu ta'ala. Islam commanded
to clean oneself before acts of worship, and that was a quality
which I had never seen in any other religion.
In some Christian rites, such as Baptism and the Eucharist, people
consume the bread and wine offered by the priest in the name of
the flesh and blood of Issa a.s., which is intended, so to speak,
as a simulated unity with Issa a.s., i.e. with God, [may Allahu
ta'ala protect us from holding such beliefs!]. I saw the resemblance
between these rites and those of the most primitive heathens,
and hated them. My mind, which had improved under the guidance
of positive science, vehemently rejected these puerile rites which
did not suit to a true religion. Islam, on the other hand, did
not accommodate any of those things. There was only truth, love,
and cleanliness in Islam.
Eventually, I made up my mind. I visited my Muslim friends and
asked them what I should do to become a Muslim. They taught me
the (statement called) Kalima-i Shahadat, how to say it and what
it meant. As I have mentioned earlier, before becoming a Muslim,
I had accepted its first half, i.e. the part that meant, "There
is no God but Allah,..." It was not difficult, therefore,
to accept the remaining part, which said: "... and Muhammad
a.s. is His (born slave and) Messenger." I was now studying
momentous books written about the Islamic religion. When I read
one of them, namely, 'Le Phénomène Coranique', a very lovely book
prepared by Malak Bannabi, I saw with amazement and admiration
what a tremendous book Qur'an al-karim was. The facts written
in that book of Allah which was revealed fourteen centuries before
now are in precise conformance with the results of today's scientific
and technological research. Both from scientific and technological
points of view and with respect to sociological activities, the
Qur'an al-karim is a guide book not only today, but also forever.
On the twentieth day of February, 1953, I went to the Paris mosque
and accepted Islam officially in the presence of Mufti Effendi
and the witnesses, and I was given the name Ali Salman.
I love this new religion of mine. I am very happy and I emphasize
the firmness of my belief in Islam by frequently saying the (statement
called) Kalima-i-Shahadat and pondering over its meaning.
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