Note: I edited a small part of the article so as not to offend the believers of another religion. The full article can be accessed from the link at the bottom of the post.
Islam is becoming the most popular religion in the world, said Hashem al-Attas, a researcher at the Dar al-Mustafa for Traditional Islamic Education. “Many mass media show that it is spreading faster than all other religions,” he said. To address this issue, the al-Ibda Cultural Center for Studies and Heritage Services prepared in cooperation with Sana’a University and the al-Mustafa Center for Islamic Studies a cultural symposium on the spread of Islam in the West.
The symposium was held last Monday, Mar 19, and was attended by Luke Martin of Great Britain, who changed his name to Mos’ab after he became a Muslim and Mr. Herman, a Namibian man who became Abdullah after he converted. They are both new Muslims and narrated their stories about their journey toward Islam for those attending the symposium. Both Mos’ab and Abdullah said they came to Yemen to learn and know more about Islam in this country, as they believed it to be a country of faith and wisdom.
The people of Yemen are mentioned hundreds of times in the generations of the prophet Muhammad, said Mos’ab. “As it is mentioned in the Hadith, faith is Yemen and wisdom is Yemen.” Their sole intention on coming to Yemen was to learn the Arabic language and to know more about Islam, said Abdullah. “I heard a lot of good things about Yemen and I decided to come. I have been here for two years, and I can see that Sana’a is full of beautiful views.
It is amazing in its structure.” Abdullah wanted to share his experiences on his journey from darkness to light, and from spiritual poverty to wealth, he said. “There were two things I was thinking of, and that became my aims in life,” said Abdullah. “Money and freedom. I left my parents for these two things, after I was thinking of having a good family like the one I grew up in. “I got myself a job and started running after money and worrying about how much money was in my bank account.
I found myself in a situation where I was looking at my clothes, mobile phone, and shoes and whether they were expensive enough and the latest fashion. I was exhausted and through this exhaustion I escaped to stop one day and questioned myself what is the reason of my existence? Another thing that was confusing me is the prophet Lot in Christianity.
The prophet supposes to be the beloved of God, but Lot was said to have been drinking alcohol and having unlawful integrate with his daughters. “Prayer in Christianity is only on Sunday, once a week, while in Islam there is this continual connection with Allah. In Islam, we pray every single day of the week and for five times a day. Keeping up this practice continues connection, so that there is no way that you may be forgotten by your creator.
“I started thinking of Islam. I saw Islam as a bearded man who walks around with weapons spreading violence wherever he goes and in the same time abusing his wife. “Before I become a Muslim, I was working at a sport center. A strange man walked in with a strange beard. He was requesting a private pool. I kept in contact with him in helping him find one. As well, there was something about him that was attracting me, like good characteristics he had.
I really wanted to spend more time with him. I was visiting him in his house and I was amazed by the good hospitality, patience, and generosity he showed toward me. These characteristics were rare in people of London where I lived. Through my visits and by witnessing I learned more about Islam. He was informing me about Islam. I got to the point when I accepted Islam to be the truth, as you all know change is very hard.
“I wanted to clean myself first to meet my lord in a clean state. I told him that I need more time to think about this, and I was also worried about what my parents and friends are going to think. The response that came from my friend was the question ‘do you accept Islam to be the truth?’ He asked me if I had to die without having accepted the truth. “This question angered me and I expelled him from my house. He left, but the question did not leave me.
I asked myself what will happen for me if I die in darkness. It was Saturday night and lots of bad things in London happen on Saturday night. I was picturing myself. All these things happen to me and obviously death in particular could not be that far. I left my house and went to my friend. I got to his house and he accepted me with a smile. There was not much to be done after accepting Islam to be the truth.
I came to a point to take al-Shahadah (that is to proclaim that there is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his messenger) which means making the change. I told myself that I could give it a test. In my head I thought that I would say al-Shahadah and would try myself for a month--by buying new clothes or a mobile phone and if it does not work I can return it.” Abdullah found later on that this friend was a foreigner like him, who came from outside the UK and searched for similar things.
“I like to do like him and call people and encourage them to be Muslims,” he said. Mos’ab also spoke about his experience. He also mentioned why cultured people in the west liked Prophet Mohammed. “In the west there are scholars of history and literature and one of the striking things is that even before a number of years, when there was no television or internet, there was knowledge of the prophet Mohammed in the west,” he said.
For example, the famous French poet Alphonse de La Martaine said in his “Historie de La Turquie, Paris, 1954: “If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in history with Muhammad?...Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs… The founder of twenty terrestrial empires and one of the spiritual empires that is Muhammad.
As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well as, is there any man greater than he?” A Christian Anglican author, Barnaby Rogerson (in his “the prophet Muhammad: A Biography”) enthusiastically said about the prophet Muhammad: “Even when viewed in an entirely secular respective, he remains a super hero… only by marrying the best qualities of certain characters from European civilization- a combination, say, of Alexander the Great, and Aristotle, or the Emperor Constantine, St. Paul and St. Francis- can you begin to understand the measure of the man.”
There are likely many more in the west with stories like those of Abdullah and Mos’ab people grow fed-up with the consumerism and materialism prevalent in the west, they hunger for a life with a deeper spiritual element. For many, Islam fills that role.
http://www.yobserver.com/article-11947.php