Why did they become Muslim?

 

SALAHUDDIN BOART (American)



In 1338 [1920 C.E.], I was in the waiting-room of a doctor's office
where I had gone for a medical examination, when I saw two magazines
printed in London, namely 'Orient Review' and 'African Times'.
As I was skimming through them I read a statement that said, "There
is only one God," which impressed me deeply. Christianity
dictated three gods, which we were compelled to believe although
we could never explain it to our own minds. From that time on,
that statement, "There is only one God," never left
my mind. This holy and sublime belief, which Muslims bear in their
hearts, is an invaluable treasure.



Now I grew more and more deeply interested in Islam. By and by,
I decided to become a Muslim. After embracing Islam I assumed
the name Salahuddin. I believed in the truth that Islam is the
truest religion. For Islam is based on the fact that Allahu ta'ala
does not have a partner and that Allah, alone, has the authority
to forgive sins. How compatible this law is with the laws of nature!
In a field, on a farm, in a village, in a city, in a school, in
a government, in a state and, in short, everywhere, there is one
single ruler. Dualism has always brought about separatism.



The second proof that showed me the fact that Islam is the truest
religion was that the Arabs, who had been leading a completely
barbarous life before Islam, had developed into the world's most
civilized and the most powerful state in a very short time and
carried the most ideal concepts of love of mankind from the Arabian
deserts all the way up to Spain, and all this was owing to Islam.
The Muslim Arabs had found Arabia as a wilderness. And they cultivated
it into a rose-garden. John W. Draper (1226 [1811 C.E.]-1299 [1882
C.E.]), an honest historian, in his book 'The Intellectual Development
of Europe', enlarges on the extremely great and important part
that Islam played in the development of contemporary civilization,
and adds, "Christian historians, on account of the grudge
they have been nursing against Islam, try to cloak this truth
and cannot seem to get themselves to acknowledge how indebted
Europeans are to Muslims."



The following passage is (the paraphrase of) an excerpt from Draper's
writings on how Muslims found Spain:



"Europeans of that time were completely barbarians. Christianity
had proved short of delivering them from barbarism. They would
still be looked on as wild people. They lived in filth. Their
heads were full with superstitions. They did not even have the
ability to think properly. They lived in roughly-made huts. A
rush mat laid on the floor or hanging on the wall was the sign
of great wealth. Their food consisted of vegetables like wild
beans and carrots, some oats and, sometimes, even barks. In the
name of garments, they wore untanned animal hides because they
lasted longer, and therefore they stank awfully."



"Cleanliness was the very first thing that Muslims taught
them. Muslims washed five times daily, which caused these people
to wash at least once a day. Later on, they took the stinking,
tattered, lice-infested animal hides off their backs, dumped them,
and gave them their own garments, which had been made from textures
woven with coloured threads. They taught them how to cook, and
how to eat. They built houses, mansions and palaces in Spain.
They established schools and hospitals. They instituted universities,
which in the course of time became sources of light illuminating
the entire world. They improved horticulture everywhere. The country
was soon awash with rose and flower gardens. Gaping in astonishment
and admiration, the uncivilized Europeans watched all these developments,
and gradually began to keep pace with the new civilization."



Educating so wild a nation; imbuing them with sentiments of civilization;
rescuing them from the depths of darkness, nascence and superstitions;
all these inconceivably tremendous tasks were accomplished by
the Arabs owing only and only to the Islamic religion. For the
Islamic religion is the most genuine religion. Allahu ta'ala helped
them for their success.



The Islamic religion, commanded by Allahu ta'ala and taught and
publicized by Muhammad a.s., and the Qur'an al-karim, which is
the Word of Allahu ta'ala, changed the course of the world's history
and freed it from the fetters of darkness. Had it not been for
the Islamic religion, humanity would not have attained the present
heights of civilization, nor would knowledge and science be in
such advanced levels today. Muhammad a.s. states, "Even if
knowledge is in China, (go and) acquire it." This is the
Islamic religion which I accepted willingly.