Compiled and Edited by: Dr. Abdul Ghani Farooq
Pages: 511
Publishers: Maktabah Ta‘mīr-i-Insāniyyat, Urdu Bazar,
Lahore, Pakistan
Independent and objective inquiry into the religious
sciences leads to a high level of understanding of one’s beliefs. This level of
faith is quite different from that achieved by an individual who ‘inherits’ a
set of concepts and beliefs but fails to subsequently ‘substantiate’ them
through a conscious effort of reasoning and use of intellect. People who truly
convert to a belief system do so after undergoing an essential process of
resolving the conflicting ideas they come across with the aim of grasping the
truth. The duration of this process can vary depending on the circumstances in
which a person lives; he comes across conflicting concepts and decides not to
ignore them but face them boldly and resolve them intellectually. It is but
natural to expect that those who inherit a particular set of beliefs have a
weaker faith in the veracity of their beliefs as compared to those who were
alien to them initially and over time, after deliberation, made a conscious
decision to embrace them.
Since its formal inception in the domain of human
knowledge, Islam, as a belief system has spread in all corners of the world.
Allah is One and there is no other entity worthy of worship except Allah and
that we will eventually be held accountable by Him for our deeds in this world.
Despite various phases that we as followers of this religion have gone through,
the message of Islam has continued to spread in all times. However,
unfortunately, parallel to this growth there has been a steady decay in the
values exhibited by the followers of Islam. It has perhaps only been due to the
inherent strength of this message that an ever-growing number of people have
been attracted towards Islam despite the fact that those who have inherited the
faith have distanced themselves from it. Now more than ever, we see a startling
divide between the teachings of Islam and the practices on display by the
so-called followers of Islam.
Under the present circumstances, the story of a convert
presents before its audience, both Muslims as well as non-Muslims, a fresh
overview of Islam. It emphasizes the vitality of the message despite the growing
unfavorable ambiance. On the one hand it allows a neutral reader to find out
some noteworthy aspects of a faith directly through the eyes of an individual
who has spent time and effort in understanding the religion—a sincere struggle
which culminated in embracing Islam. On the other hand, it also provides a
Muslim reader with an entirely novel approach of looking at certain principles
of Islam that may further broaden his own understanding.
In this respect, Dr. Abdul Ghani Farooq’s book Our Journey
to Islam is a commendable effort. It is a healthy compilation of stories of 100
prominent people (70 males and 30 females) from all over the world who converted
to Islam. The book is essentially a step-forward in the author’s efforts of
putting together the stories of new converts for the benefit of diverse
audiences. His previous work, which has been translated into various other
languages, focused on 60 female converts to Islam. This book signifies his first
endeavor to bring out the stories of converts in the English language.
The book under review contains the biographical and
autobiographical accounts of various people in alphabetical order. What is most
significant is that the chosen 100 hail from different countries and belong to
an even more diverse range of fields. There are acclaimed doctors and sportsmen
like Dr. Maurice Bucaille and Muhammad Ali, religious scholars and preachers
like Bishop John Mypopol and Vyacheslav Polosin, scientists like Dr. Greneih,
professors like Dr. Erica Winkel and Dr. Abdul Karim Saitoh, engineers like
Wilfredo Malencia and Dr. Abdullah Alison, journalists like Muhammad Assad and
Didier Ali Bourg and artists like Cat Stevens including other people belonging
to various walks of life. This variety adds depth to the different views that
the reader comes across.
There is the story of Dr. Bucaille, who was attracted
towards Islam after studying passages in the Qur’ān, which shed light on issues
that fall within the domain of embryology. Dr. Greneih was struck by the fact
that the Qur’ān contained descriptions that could only be experienced in a sea
voyage yet it was known that Prophet Muhammad (sws) had never been on a boat not
to mention experienced such a journey. Mrs. H. Buchanan-Hamilton seemed more
impressed by the institution of Prophethood. Professor Haroon Mustafa Leon
elaborates: ‘one of the glories of Islam is that it is founded on reason, and
that it never demands from its followers an abnegation of that important mental
faculty.’ Dr. Durrani states: ‘I
venture to say there is not a single convert who does not owe his gratitude to
Hazrat Muhammad (sws) for his love for him, his help, guidance, inspiration, and
as the example of a noble person whom God in His great love sent to us to
follow.’
Yet there are others like Greg Noakes who quite
emphatically states that one reason alone cannot be singled out for his
conversion to Islam: ‘to reduce the beauty of Islam to a series of talking
points’ he says, ‘is clearly absurd: there are a thousand reasons, small and
large, why I became a Muslim.’ There
is yet another category of people who raised questions about their own faiths
and found lucid answers presented by the Qur’ān.
The narratives presented in the book have been gathered
from various journals and books written by Muslims from all over the world.
While this information helps in giving some credibility to the correctness of
these accounts, for some sceptics, it creates a slightly mixed impression. There
is this feeling, not entirely unfounded, amongst Muslim readers in particular,
that some of the contemporary Muslim writers, at times, exaggerate accounts in
an attempt to brighten the image of Islam. However, despite the nature of the
sources used in this book, it is almost devoid of that peculiar tinge of
exaggeration in relating the different accounts.
From a literary perspective, there are a few places where
the tone of the language and expression make it difficult to understand the
content. This appears to be due to the vague nature of the sources instead of
being a sign of weakness of the adaptation. However, even at these few places,
the context clarifies the content.
In the end, I would like to say that the book is most
certainly worth reading. I recommend it particularly because I believe that
given the current state of the Muslims, the book relates the stories of people
who were impressed by the simple principles of Islam that they found to be
practical – principles that we seem to have ‘lost’ sight of somehow. It will
benefit both an ordinary Muslim and a scholar on the basis of its simplicity as
well as wide range of information. In short, the book presents an excellent mix
of ideas and backgrounds that could benefit new converts, Muslims, and
non-Muslims as well.
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