Why did they become Muslim?

 

THOMAS MUHAMMAD CLAYTON (American)



It was almost noon time. Dazed with the sweltering heat of the
day, we were trudging along a dusty road, when, from afar, a singularly
mellifluous voice began to caress our auditory senses. So rich
a voice it was that the entire space seemed to be sated with it.
As we walked past a cluster of trees, a bewildering scene came
into sight. It was such a scene that we hardly believed what we
saw. Mounted on a small, wooden tower, an elderly Arab in an extremely
clean long robe and wearing a white turban was performing (calling)
the adhan (or adhan). As he performed the adhan, he was in a trance,
almost completely isolated from the world, and in the presence
of his Creator, Owner. As if hypnotized by this noble sight, we
halted, and then, slowly, sat down on the ground. We did not know
what the sounds and words reaching our ears meant, yet they somehow
moved us and instilled a mood of elation, relief into our souls.
Afterwards, we learned that the sweet words uttered by the Arab
meant, "Allahu ta'ala is the greatest. There is no god to
be worshipped other than Allahu ta'ala." All of a sudden,
many people appeared around us. Till hardly a moment before, however,
we had seen no one around us. We did not know whence these people
came, and there was an expression of great deference and love
on their faces. There were people of all age-groups and classes
among them. They were different in their clothing, in their manners
of walking, and in their appearances. Yet they all had the same
expression of earnestness, great dignity and, at the same time,
geniality on their faces. The number of comers increased incessantly,
so that we felt as if the process of their increasing would never
come to an end. At last the comers assembled. They all took off
their shoes and clogs and stood in rows. To our great amazement,
no segregation of any sort was observed in the formation of the
lines. White people, yellow people, black people, rich people,
poor people, tradesmen, civil servants, workers stood side by
side without any discrimination between their races or ranks,
and performed their worship together.



I admired so many different people's brotherly coming together.
It is three years now since I saw that sublime scene for the first
time. In the meantime, I began to gather information about that
lofty religion which brought people so closely together. The information
that I collected about Islam brought me all the closer to this
religion. Muslims believed in one Allah and professed that men
were not sinful by birth, which was quite contrary to the Christian
inculcation. They looked on them only as born slaves of Allahu
ta'ala, displayed profound compassion towards them, and wished
them to abide by the right path and thus lead a comfortable, peaceful
and happy life. Whereas in Christianity even an evil thought was
deemed as a sin, Muslims defined sin only as a result of disobeying
Allahu ta'ala or violating the rights of born slaves, and acknowledged
man free as to his thoughts. According to the Islamic religion,
man was responsible "only for what he has done."



For the reasons I have cited above, I accepted Islam willingly.
Despite the three years' time since, I sometimes dream of the
Arab muezzin's touching and effective voice and multifarious people's
running from all directions and standing in lines. It is a doubtless
fact that these people, who prostrate themselves altogether and
indiscriminately, are doing so sincerely to worship Allahu ta'ala.



Haqq ta'ala avenges Himself on the slave through the slave,

In the ignorant's eyes the avenger is the poor slave.

Everything belongs to the Creator, the slave's a mere tool,

Without the Creator's command you cannot move a leaf!