Essential Lessons For Every Muslim

In the name of All, The Most Gracious, The most Merciful and may Allah's peace and blessings be upon the final Prophet Muhammad, his family, his companions and upon whomsoever follows their way. Lesson: Four The Categories of Tawhid Tawhid has three categories: 1. Tawhid Ar-Rububiyyah, or Oneness of the Lordship of Allah. This means that Allah is the only Lord of all the worlds. He is the Creator, the Sustainer, the Planner, the Organizer, the One Who gives life and causes death, etc. 2. Tawhid Al-Uluhiyyah, or the Oneness of the worship of Allah. This means that no one has the right to be worshipped but Allah. 3. Tawhid Al-Asma’i Was-Sifat, or the Uniqueness of the Names and Attributes of Allah. We must believe in all of Allah’s Beautiful Names and Lofty Attributes; none can be named or given Allah’s Attributes which He has stated in the Qur’an or mentioned through His Messenger Muhammad, without changing them, ignoring them completely, twisting their meanings, or likening them to any of those of His creatures. Shirk also has three categories. They are: 1. Shirk Akbar, or major Shirk 2. Shirk Asghar, or minor Shirk 3. Shirk Khafiyy, or hidden Shirk The major Shirk is bound to cause the good works of those who commit it to be vain and fruitless. It is also bound to cause those who commit it to remain in Hell-fire for all eternity, as the Qur’an says: (ولو أشركوا لحبط عنهم ما كانوا يعملون) (الأنعام:88) “But if they were to join others with Allah in worship, all that they used to do would be of no benefit to them.” (6:88) (ما كان للمشركين أن يعمروا مساجد الله شاهدين على أنفسهم بالكفر أولئك حبطت أعمالهم وفي النار هم خالدون) (التوبة:17) “It is not for those who join others with Allah in worship to maintain the mosques of Allah while they witness against their own souls to disbelief. The works of such are in vain, and in Fire shall they dwell.” (9:17) (إن الله لا يغفر أن يشرك به ويغفر ما دون ذلك لمن يشاء) “Verily, Allah forgives not that partners should be set up with Him in worship, but He forgives anything else, to whom He pleases.” (4:48) (إنه من يشرك بالله فقد حرم الله عليه الجنة ومأواه النار وما للظالمين من أنصار) (المائدة:72) “Verily, whoever sets up partners with Allah in worship, Allah will forbid him Paradise, and the Fire will be his abode. The polytheists and wrongdoers will have no helpers.” (5:72) This type of Shirk is an unpardonable sin and includes, among other things, such acts as seeking assistance from the dead and the idols, supplicating them, making vows in their names and offering sacrifices to them. The minor Shirk includes such things as showing off certain religious acts of worship, swearing by other than Allah, and one’s saying “If Allah and so-and-so wills.” At-Tabarani and Al-Baihaqi reported on the authority of Mahmud bin Labid Al-Ansari, with a good chain of narrators, that the Prophet said: (أخوف ما أخاف عليكم الشرك الأصغر) “What I fear for you most is the minor Shirk.” When he was asked about what he meant by the minor Shirk, he replied, “Showing off.” The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: (من حلف بشيء دون الله فقد أشرك) “Whoever swears by other than Allah has indeed committed Shirk.” Imam Ahmad authentically narrated this tradition on the authority of ‘Umar, radiyallaho ‘anhu’ Abu Dawud and At-Tirmidhi also authentically reported on the authority of Ibn ‘Umar radiyallahu ‘anhu, that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: (من حلف بغير الله فقد كفر أو أشرك) “Whoever swears by other than Allah has indeed disbelieved or committed Shirk.” Abu Dawud also authentically reported on the authority of Hudhaifah bin Al-Yaman, radiyallahu ‘anhu, that the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: (لا تقولوا: ما شاء الله وشاء فلان، ولكن قولوا: ما شاء الله ثم شاء فلان) (Do not say, ‘What Allah wills and so-and-so wills’; you should rather say, ‘What Allah wills, then what so-and-so wills.” To commit this type of Shirk does not take one out of the fold of Islam, nor does it cause those who commit it to abide in the Fire forever. It rather goes against the ideal principles of Tawhid. The evidence for the third category of Shirk, namely Shirk Al-Khafiyy, or the Hidden Shirk, comes from the prophetic tradition in which the Prophet, peace be upon him, said: (ألا أخبركم بما هو أخوف عليكم عندي من المسيح الدحال؟) (الشرك الخفي: يقوم الرجل فيصلي، فيزين صلاته، لما يرى من نظر الرجل إليه) “Shall I not inform you about what I fear more for you than Antichrist?” The Companions replied, “Yes, O Allah’s Messenger.” Then he said, “It is the hidden Shirk. A person stands up in prayer and tries to make it perfect when he realizes that others are looking at him.” (Imam Ahmad reported this Hadith on the authority of Abu Sa’id Al-Khudri, radiyallahu ‘anhu) Shirk can also be divided into two categories only, namely, the major Shirk and the minor Shirk. The hidden Shirk can occur in them both. It can be found in the major Shirk, like the type of Shirk committed by the hypocrites, who reveal belief while concealing their false beliefs for fear of being killed. It can also occur in the case of minor Shirk in the form of showing off, as evidenced by the above mentioned Hadith reported on the authority of Mahmud bin Labid.

Essential Lessons for every Muslim

Lesson One: Memorization of Suwar To memorize Surat Al-Fatihah, and from Surat Az-Zalzalah to Surat An-Nas. Memorization of these Suwar should be accompanied with a good recitation as well as a deep understanding of their meanings. ***** Lesson Two: The Declaration of Faith To know the meaning of the Declaration of Faith: ‘Ash-hadu an la ilaha illallahhu, wa ash-hadu anna Muhammadan Rasulullah’ and to know the conditions of the statement: ‘la ilaha illallahh.’ The meaning of the Declaration of Faith is: I bear witness that there is no god worthy of worship except Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His Messenger. The phrase ‘La ilaha’ negates the existence of all deities, while the phrase ‘ilallah’ confirms the right of Lordship and Godship to Allah Who Alone deserves to be worshipped. The conditions of this declaration are as follows: 1. Knowledge which negates ignorance. 2. Certainty which negates doubt. 3. Sincerity of worship which negates Shirk. 4. Truthfulness which negates lying. 5. Love, which negates hate. 6. Complete submission, which negates rebellion. 7. Acceptance which negates rejection. 8. Rejection of all those that are unjustly worshiped besides Allah the All Mighty.

The Imam and the Athiest

IN THE NAME OF ALLAH, MAY PEACE AND BLESSINGS BE UPON THE FINAL PROPHET MUHAMMAD AND WHOEVER FOLLOWS HIS WAY.

In the era of the great Imam, Abi Hanifa Al- Nu’man, a man (atheist) was famous for heresy, denying the existence of Allah. He agreed to meet the Imam Abi Hanifa at Jum’a prayer (Friday sermon) and this dialogue started between them:

THE MAN: Who was before Allah?
THE IMAM: What comes before three…?
THE MAN: Two.
THE IMAM: What comes before two?
THE MAN: One.
THE IMAM: What comes before one then?
THE MAN: Nothing (zero).
THE IMAM: So, nothing comes before The One, The Originator of the heavens and the earth…….. Allah is The First…. And there is no one before Him.
** ** ** **
THE MAN: Where does the face of Allah turn? If it turned to the east, for instance, and if people in the west disobeyed Him, He does not see them.
The Imam then got up and lit a “lamp” and asked the man:
Where does the light of the lamp turn?
THE MAN: The light of the lamp has enlightened everywhere.
THE IMAM: And the light of the face of Allah has enlightened the entire universe.
“Whichever way you turn, there is the face of Allah” (The Quran, 2: 115)
** ** ** **
The universe belongs to Allah, Exaltation to Him…….No place surrounds Him because He has created “place’’…… and no time affects Him because He is The Creator of time.
At this point, the atheist man gets up (hugging or kissing) the great Imam and declares his submission to the truth and his conviction of Islam.

Translated from “This is Your Aqeedah (conviction), my Son” (63-65) by Mahmud Muhammad Gharib that is written in Arabic.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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THE CARPENTER GOD!

I am T. A. Gardener, 25 years. Jesus was a carpenter when he was twelve years of age and remained so until he was thirty, as The New Testament tells. He was earning his bread through carpentry, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that.

However, I could not swallow the idea that God was a carpenter for eighteen years. I could not either swallow the idea that God was not only a carpenter, but just an apprentice in the early years of his career learning carpentry. I could not swallow the idea that Jesus until the age of thirty was behaving like a normal human being and waited until the age of thirty when he began to play the so-called role of God. The Christian God is the only god that was a carpenter! Jesus was a carpenter like thousands of human carpenters, and suddenly he became not a god, but God, God the carpenter or the carpenter God!

My modest explanation is this. Jesus is a human being, and when he was thirty, God sent to him His revelation and ordered him to convey the message to the people of Israel only. Jesus is God's messenger. That is all. God gave him miracles as he gave to all messengers before and after him.

This was my personal solution to the Christian dilemma. Later, I discovered that my understanding completely agrees with the Islamic understanding. This has convinced me to embrace Islam, which explains all my questions in a very convincing manner.

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AMERICANISM

I am J. B. Miller, 36 years. I was a teacher. Because I was a devoted Catholic Christian, it happened once that I criticized Darwin's evolution theory and stated to my students in class that Darwinism is merely a theory, not a law; he could be wrong. I told my class that there must be the Creator, Who created all beings and all animals in their different forms.

Two days later, I was called by the school principal. To my surprise, he gave me a written final warning for my anti-secular tendencies and my pro-religion attitude. I told him that the US constitution guarantees both the freedom of belief and the freedom of expression and that he has no right to deny me my constitutional rights. He replied that I am free to say anything except preaching God in class and he said, "No God in class." I could not believe what I heard; I was utterly shocked that secularism has become America's new religion.

I have come to the conclusion that freedom in the USA is a big lie. I have realized that there is no difference between Americanism and communism: both are godless and atheistic.

In contrast, I like the spirituality of the Islamic countries, where God is reminded of everywhere: at school, at home, at mosque, in media, and on all occasions. The Islamic life is more natural, more spiritual, and more balanced than our Western life, where God is imprisoned at church and is never allowed out!

The Western life is a schizophrenic life. You have to be two persons in one: one on Sunday and one on other days; one at; church and one outside it. You have to be with a double personality: two minds, two souls, two tongues, two sets of standards, and two faces. It is a life of utterly unbearable hypocrisy.

In Islam, you believe in God and Islam, and you carry your belief wherever you go. You have one mind, the mind of the believer. You have one soul, the soul of a surrenderer to God. You have one tongue, a tongue of a worshipper. You have one set of ethics, the ethical set of Islamic values. You have one face, the face of a pacified Muslim.

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THE TRIO

I am V. P. Hansen, 27 years. I spent years and years trying to understand how God can be three in one, and I simply couldn't. My brain can understand that God could be one, two, or three, but no human brain can possibly understand how God can be three gods in one God. It is too mysterious to be true.

Why does God need to be three in one when He can be one and function as one? Multiplicity implies incapability. If He needs other partners, assistants, or godly copies, this means that he is not perfect and, hence, he is no more God. He would be a god, not God. I have come to the belief that the Trinity is one form of polytheism, that the Trinity contradicts God's Oneness, preached in The Old Testament and all prophets.

I felt that the whole Christianity is collapsing before my eyes because its basis, i.e., the Trinity, is simply wrong, unreasonable, and groundless.

I could not understand the chaos caused by the Trinity. Sometimes the church says that Jesus is God and sometimes it says that Jesus is the son of God. There is no possible confusion beyond such confusion. I didn't know who my God is: Is he Jesus or God? I did not know who God is and who Jesus is.

I began to wander if there is a more convincing religion with a reasonable concept of God. I found the answer in Islam: God is one; God is eternal; God has no equals and no partners; God did not beget; nor was He begotten. This is the God I was looking for: one, not three; eternal, not dead on the cross; unique, not with three copies; able, not with two assistants. In Islam, I find everything logical, simple, and reasonable. Thanks to God that I am on the right path, the straight way of Islam.

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WHAT SAVES?

I am G. A. Mackin, 34 years. The church has never made what saves man clear to me or to any Christian. Sometimes, we are told that the crucifixion of Jesus saves humans. Sometimes, the church says that if you believe, you are saved. Sometimes, it says that belief alone is not enough; you have to do good deeds. The whole church story has never been, nor will it ever be, clear in my mind.

The New Testament says, "The tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be at the end to this world."(Matthew 13:40). If sinners will be punished, why was Jesus' crucifixion then? What for?

Islam is crystal clear on this: you save yourself through your faith and good deeds. That is Islam: logical, consistent, and clear. I like the logic and consistency of Islam.


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NO INTERCESSORS

I am C. M. Hill, 23 years. Christianity tells me that if you want to ask God, you cannot ask Him directly. You have to go through a process. First, ask the Holy Spirit. Next, if the Holy Spirit approves, he will pass your request to Jesus. Then, if Jesus approves, he will pass it to God. You have to reach God through secretaries or intercessors.

I understand that Islam does not require such a process. There is none or nothing between you and God. Just address God directly with no mediators. I like this Islamic concept of God. That is why, among other reasons, I have chosen Islam.

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USELESS CRUCIFIXION

I am R. D. Hockett, 43 years. The basic comer-stone of Christianity is Jesus' crucifixion since it is essential to salvation although such a concept has never convinced me.

To my surprise, The New Testament itself has evidence against the concept of salvation through crucifixion. Jesus says, "Not every one that hath saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21). Doing God's will means obeying God. This evidence proves beyond doubt that what saves you is faith and good deeds, not Jesus, crucifixion.

This text undermines the whole basis of Christianity. Islam has this view: believe in God, obey Him, and you are saved. The Islamic view I makes sense. Christianity, in fact, encourages people to sin because Jesus bore their sins! Islam makes everyone bear his own sin, which makes much more sense. That is why I have become a Muslim.

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WHY ASK FOR
FORGIVENESS?

I am N. W. Jersild, 44 years. Whenever I attended prayer at the church, the pastor asked the audience to repeat after him asking God through Jesus, or Jesus through God, to forgive them. The church music added to the hypnotic effect of the situation. Everybody, except me, was pleased or seemed pleased.

I began to question the whole thing. Now we ask God to forgive our sins. All right! But didn't Jesus bear our sins? The church tells us this night and day: Jesus offered himself on the cross to bear our sins, and he did bear them. If Jesus bore our sins, why are we asking God to forgive our sins? I felt that Christianity is a loose inconsistent belief; it does not hold well together. I began to look for the truth and started to read more about religions in general.

My readings led me to the truth: Islam is the only true religion. It is the religion of all prophets including Moses and Jesus. Believe in all the messengers of God, not only one. Believe in all. God's Revealed Books, not only one. Love all humans and all races, not the white race only. Islam is the only right choice; I repeat that Islam is the only right choice. Indeed, it fully satisfies the mind, the heart, the body, and the soul of any objective unbiased person.



THE AUTHOR'S BOOKS

In English

Language Teaching
Programmed TEFL Methodology
A Workbook for English Teaching Practice
A Dictionary of Education: English-Arabic
A Dictionary of Theoretical Linguistics: English-Arabic
A Dictionary of Applies Linguistics: English-Arabic
Teaching English to Arab Students
The Teacher of English
A Contrastive Transformational Grammar: Arabic and English
Learn Arabic by Yourself (English and Arabic)
A Dictionary of Islamic Terms: English- Arabic
Simplified English Grammar
Improve Your English :. .
The Light of Islam 1'-'.
The NeedforIslam ft .
Traditions of Prophet Muhammad
Sayings of Prophet Muhammad
The Truth about Jesus Christ
Islam and Christianity
Questions and Answers about Islam
Introduction to Linguistics IN ARABIC
Dictionary of Phonetics
Study Skills
Linguistics Studies
The Student's Guidebook in Teaching Practice
Language Teaching
Living with Two Languages
Frequent Structures in Arabic
Learn Spelling in Arabic
Arabic Transformational Grammar
Language Phones
Introduction to Linguistics
How to write a Research Paper
The False Glimmer of the Western Civilization
The Truth about Jesus Christ
A Comparison between the Four Gospels
The Corruption of the Old Testament

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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THE BOOK TITLE

I am J. A. Welty, 35 years. If God has a book, He will surely give it a name, i.e., a title. As for The Bible, God has not called it The Bible; nor has He called The New Testament as such, nor has He called The Old Testament as such.

Is God's book not worthy of a title? Surely, it is. However, those three titles were not given by God; they were given by the church. This proves the point that he who writes a book is the one who gives it a title. That is exactly what happened: the church and other human sources supervised writing different parts of The Bible, and hence they gave the titles. God did not give those three books the titles they have now, i.e., The Bible, The Old Testament, and The New Testament. Men wrote them, and men named them.

Look at The Holy Quran. Its name, i.e., The Holy Quran, is given to it by God in the very text of the Holy Quran. When God gives a book, He gives its name. This did happen to The Holy Quran, but not to The Bible.

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GOD'S RELIGION

I am G. C. Bailey, 35 years. God wants us to obey Him, surrender to Him, and follow His way. Every philosopher gives a name to his philosophy, which usually ends in -ism. Every way has a name such as naturalism, socialism, and existentialism. What is the name of God's way?

The church says that God's way is named Christianity. If so, why do we not find this name in The Bible? God, in The Bible, never gave the order to us to be Christians. Jesus never said that he was Christian. He never described his disciples as Christians. The word Christianity never appeared in The New Testament nor in The Old Testament.

As for Islam, God, in The Holy Quran, explicitly mentions Islam to be the only religion accepted by God. Literally, Islam means submission. Theologically, Islam means willing submission to God. That is why The Holy Quran refers to all prophets, even those before Muhammad including Abraham, Jesus, and Moses, as Muslims, i.e., true submitters to God.

God’s way is Islam, as The Holy Quran tells. The term “Christianity” is not mentioned, not once, in The Bible. It is a term invented by the church. Islam is a term given by God to God’s way. This gives the clue that Islam is what God wants us to follow. God wants all humans to be Muslims, not Christians, not Buddhists, not Hinduists, not anything else.

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THE BEGINNING
AND THE END

I am D. L. Clark, 39 years. I had a Muslim friend who used to keep talking to me about Islam. I repeatedly asked him to stop doing so, but he earnestly insisted on his attempts. He told me something interesting about the Book of Islam, i.e., The Holy Quran. He said that The Holy Quran has a beginning verse, which marks the beginning of God's revelation, and a closing verse, which marks the end of God's revelation, i.e., a verse whose text shows where and when the Quranic revelation began and a verse whose text shows where and when the Quranic revelation ended.

I thought that this is a really significant indicator. A revelation of God really deserves an opening marker and a closing marker, a matter which surely takes part in the text preservation.

In contrast, The Bible never gives you a clue where and when God's revelation began or ended. The Bible, in fact, is an open book: many people felt free to add to it, delete from it, and even change it. That is why there are different Bibles: the international one, the authorized one, that of king James, the simplified one, the shortened one, that of the Protestants, and that of the Catholics. Which Bible is The Bible?

There are many Bibles. There is one Quran. I felt more at rest with The Holy Quran. That is why I have become a Muslim.

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HOW MANY GODS?

I am M. D. Crow, 27 years. I used to attend Sunday church prayers, but the more I went there, the more confused I got. The pastor referred to Jesus as God's son; all right so far. Then, to my surprise, he began to refer to him as God. How can one be X and the son o/X at the same time? I could not grasp it.

The pastor played hide and seek with my mind. He addresses God through God's son, i.e., Jesus. Then he begins to address Jesus as if he were God Himself.

I felt there is something wrong with what I heard. The pastor was not clear whether Jesus is human, God, God's son, or what. He gave contradictory clues.

In Islam, I feel more at ease. Everything is clear and logical. Jesus is God's messenger. God is God. Man is man. I like the logic and simplicity of Islam. The more you know Islam, the more you accept it. Don't be afraid of knowing.

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YAHWEH

I am R. W. Ebel, 38 years. The Old Testament says that God's name is Yahweh, but strangely, this name never shows up in The New Testament. Why? Has God cancelled His old name? The only answer to this question is that either Yahweh is not God's name or The New Testament is not God's pure word. In both cases, the obvious conclusion is that The Bible is not God's pure word.

Is God's word so cheap and so insignificant to play with? If God's name is Yahweh as The Old Testament says, why don't we find this name in The New Testament? '

In the case of The Holy Quran, God's name in it is Allah. This name is referred to thousands: of times in The Holy Quran. It is the only name; given to God by all Muslims. Other words such as: the Merciful and the All-Knowing are merely Allah's attributes.

Looking into this matter, I felt that The Holy Quran is quite consistent with itself, and it leaves no doubt about the fact that it is God's true pure word.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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DIFFERENT FATHERS

I am M. E. Proust, 31 years. I was a regular reader of The New Testament, where I came across many contradictions which I could not reconcile, especially those related to Jesus.

I could not understand how Jesus can be the son of God and God at the same time, nor how he is the son of Joseph, the son of God, and the Son of David, all at the same time, as The New Testament tells.

The Holy Quran of Islam genealogically refers to Jesus in one single way only, i.e., the son of Mary. No one can deny that Jesus is the son of Mary. Islam always gives the indisputable truth, the clear truth, the unrefusable undeniable truth. You never find any false statements in The Holy Quran, God's pure true final word.

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THE LAMB

I am K. A. Randolph, 30 years. The church always repeats that Jesus is the Lamb of God slain to bear our sins. I thought if the Lamb is always there ready to bear our sins, then we should never worry about committing as many sins as we like as long as we have the Lamb, someone who is always ready to pay the bill.

The church simply says to us, "Sin, and the Lamb will carry your sin." I figure out that this lamb theory is a very strange, illogical, and ethically destructive theory. As a matter of fact, it encourages people to sin and sin and sin worrying about nothing because God offered his beloved only son as a sacrifice on the cross in order to save them from the burden of sin. The church is implying this message to its followers: be as sinful as you wish to be because all your sins were, are, and will be paid for and borne by Jesus.

The church message is simply destructive to morality, ethics, good behavior, and community welfare. What people actually need, I believe, is not an encouragement to sinning, but rather a discouragement. People must be warned against sin, rather than be tempted to do it.

Islam, I have known, does the opposite of what Christianity does. Islam keeps on warning people against sin and its dangers. Islam teaches people that if you sin, it is you, and only you, who will pay for it, not Jesus or any other one. Islam teaches that all your good deeds and all your bad deeds will be written in your record, and on the Day of Judgment the balance will be worked out: which overweighs which? Do your good deeds overweigh or do your bad deeds overweigh? As a result, Islam builds up in the individual a sense of ethical responsibility, certainly not achieved by the Christian lamb theory.

I have chosen Islam because once you truly know it, you cannot but accept it. I am absolutely sure, beyond any doubt, that Islam is the only right choice.

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INCOMPLETE

I am J. A. Swift, 45 years. I was attending a Sunday prayer, which I used to observe regularly. The priest referred us to the ten commandments in The Old Testament. He also emphasized the fact that the ten commandments do not appear in The New Testament and that they only appear in The Old Testament.

I thought that the ten commandments are the only ethical code in the whole Bible and I wondered, if they are so important, why they appear only in The Old Testament and not in The New Testament as well. The reason, I thought, may be that a Christian should abide by both Testaments and that the two testaments are to be considered as one book. However, this explanation is opposed by the fact that the church has cancelled The Old Testament, which is referred to selectively only. Although Jesus said that he came to confirm Moses' law, the church cancelled this law. Then Paul came and cancelled most of what Jesus enjoined. Finally, we ended with a Christianity that has little to do with Jesus Christ.

It also occurred to me that most of the ten commandments are in the negative, i.e., don'ts. What if the verbal prohibition is not obeyed in practice? What if killing actually happens despite the don't? What if stealing happens? What if fornication or adultery happens? The New Testament gives no penalties if a transgression occurs, probably because our Jesus, the Lamb, will bear or has already borne all our past, present, and future sins, crimes, and what not.

In Islam, I know, there are so many detailed commandments about behavior, which makes human life so happy because there is little room for faults if God's word is listened to. A Muslim lives in light: everything is clear and well-defined. The Muslim knows what to do, what to say, and how to behave because all is made clear in the message of Islam, unlike Christianity, which leaves its followers in complete darkness and in puzzling skepticism most of the time.

Islam does not only give commandments but it also gives penalties if the commandments are violated. Islam gives advice and gives punishment too. Islam meets the psychology of humans better. Islam does not preach and teach only; it also punishes transgressors.

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ONE, NOT THREE

I am Y. J. Thomas, 40 years. The church says that The Bible is God's word, but I began doubting this claim when I started examining The Bible. For one thing, The Old Testament always talks about one God, whereas The New Testament sometimes refers to three gods. How can the book of God not be sure about God Himself? Does God not know whether He is one or three?!

Because of this, among other reasons, I seriously began to suspect the origin of The Bible and began to doubt its authenticity. I have come to the conclusion that The Bible cannot be God's pure word.

In contrast, The Holy Quran, the book of Islam, consistently refers to God as one. I take The Holy Quran to be God's pure word. That is why I have embraced Islam, the religion of pure monotheism.

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LOST ORIGINAL

I am P. D. Thoreau, 21 years. The original version of Jesus' Gospel in Hebrew is lost. Of course, God could have preserved it if He had wanted to. But He did not wish to do so. This is a proof that God does not want The Gospel to be His final word. Had God wanted The Gospel to be His final word, He would have preserved its original from loss.

Because the original of Jesus' gospel is lost, nobody knows for sure what God's word to Jesus really was. That is why we have now the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In fact, in the beginning, there were more than one hundred different gospels, which the church reduced repeatedly and gradually until the number finally reached four. The fact that the gospels are four proves the point, i.e., that God's pure word to Jesus or Jesus' gospel is lost. What The New Testament now has is merely stories about Jesus, some of which are true and some are not, some of which are complete and some are not.

Looking at The Holy Quran, the Holy Book revealed by God to Prophet Muhammad, I know that The Holy Quran is, was , and will be as it was revealed in its original form and original language, i.e. Arabic, with no letter more and no letter less, in one form and one version. God has preserved The Holy Quran because He wants it to be His only final Revealed Book. The only book that contains God's pure word is The Holy Quran, not The Bible. That is why I have embraced Islam. The fact that God has preserved The Holy Quran from corruption and has not preserved The Bible proves that The Holy Quran, not The Bible, is God's pure word.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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JESUS AND MUHAMMAD

I am B. O. Lyndon, 34 years. I was reading The New Testament and I came across Jesus' words saying that when Jesus goes, he will send us the comforter and when the comforter comes, he will tell us the whole truth. Jesus himself tells us that a prophet will come to tell us the whole truth (John 16:13). Jesus was absolutely right. The comforter, i.e., Prophet Muhammad, did come, conveyed Islam, told the whole truth, and spoke with God's word.

I have become a Muslim because Jesus orders me to be a Muslim. He told us in The New Testament to follow the coming prophet when he comes. I have become a Muslim in obedience to Jesus' teachings. Jesus said, "But the Comforter ...whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and brings all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. ‘’ (John 14:26).

Some people, many people I know, believe in Islam at the bottom of their hearts, but they are afraid of relatives, neighbors, and friends; they are afraid of social pressure. To them I say that they should be afraid of God, not of humans. What will relatives do for them at the Day of Judgment? Certainly, nothing. My advice is this: go to Islam now, right now with no delay or hesitation. Get out of ignorance into knowledge and from darkness into light.

(52)

EDITIONS

I am P. C. Marsh, 42 years. There are many different editions of The Bible. One of them is called The Revised Edition. If revised, it is modified. If modified, how can it possibly be God's true word? Another edition of The Bible is simplified; another is called international. I wonder how a book called holy and labeled as God's word can be revised, simplified, and can appear in versions so different, and even so contradictory, in content.

I began to doubt the holiness of The Bible simply because there are so many Bibles. Which Bible is The Bible?

In contrast, there is The Holy Quran: perfect in content, great in meanings, miraculous in its facts, complete in legislation, devoid of mistakes, and with one single version. This is the Book, the really Holy Book, The Holy Quran, God’s pure final word.


(53)

A COMPLETE RELIGION

I am C. K. Morris, 38 years. I have to be guided by the divine message conveyed to me. The nature of Jesus, whether man, god, or man- god, does not help me at all in solving the problems which I face every day. What I need as a human being is a detailed heavenly message that instructs me on how to behave. I looked into the message conveyed in The New Testament, and I found it a very poor message. The New Testament does not help much; nor does it offer much guidance, in the first place.

My curiosity led me to read The Holy Quran of Islam. Upon comparing The Holy Quran to The New Testament, I have found out that The Holy Quran gives full guidance on matters of worship, faith, ethics, what is right, what is wrong, penalties, death, Hell, Paradise, the Day of Judgment, business, trade, peace, war, man and woman, marriage and divorce, life and death, inheritance, parents and children, and all the major concerns of man. It is a perfect book, indeed. In fact, the title of the book, i.e., The Holy Quran, means the book to be read.

I personally advise everyone to read The Holy Quran, the book revealed by God to Prophet Muhammad originally in Arabic, but now you can find translations in all the important languages of the world, especially in English and French. If you do not read The Holy Quran, you miss the truth, lose a lot, and alienate yourself from your Creator.

(54)

LACK OF MEN

I am D. L. Mowat, 26 years. At the end of the church service, I asked the pastor," As you know, the number of women in the USA exceeds the number of men by about ten million. How can Christianity solve this problem? Will those ten million women remain unmarried?" The man thought for a while and gave a joke as an answer, "I guess the only solution is that they should convince ten million husbands to divorce their ten million wives." What a solution!

I had a Muslim friend, whom I asked the same question. He answered, "Islam solves this problem both fairly and easily. It allows polygamy: a man may marry up to four wives. Of course, not all men actually use this license; only very few do when they have to." Thus, polygamy solves the problems of some husbands who find themselves in need of another wife, and at the same time it solves the problems of millions of single women waiting for marriage. Obviously, the Christian formula of one-man-one-woman does not suit neither men nor women. On the surface, it may look as if it works, but in fact it does not. Everybody knows what is going on in the Western life: one man with one wife, but with several mistresses. The Islamic pattern is different: one man with one wife, basically, but with another wife if necessary. The only allowed relationship between men and women in Islam is marriage and nothing but marriage in order to protect the family, define responsibilities, and keep the community morally, hygienically, and socially clean.

Another point is that Islam depends on the divine sources, i.e., The Holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad's traditions, which allow polygamy. In contrast, Christianity does not depend on its divine source. The Bible allows polygamy, but the church disallows it. Prophet David had many wives (II Samuel 5:13); other Jewish kings had 14-18 wives plus dozens of mistresses (II Chronicles 11:12 and 13:21); Prophet Solomon had seven hundred wives and three hundred mistresses (I Kings 11:3). There is no single evidence in The Bible that disallows polygamy. In fact, The Bible allows limitless polygamy: Solomon had seven hundred wives. Islam came and limited the number up to four only.

For this matter and many others, I have found out that Islam meets life requirements better than any other creed. Wherever you look, you find Islam perfect. The more you know Islam and the more you think about it, the clearer its greatness and perfection become.

(55)

NO SON

I am C. M. Pierce, 29 years. Christianity depends on the creed that Jesus is God's son. But I always kept on asking myself, "How did the church come to this conclusion?" Jesus has no father; neither does Adam have. In fact, Adam has neither a father nor a mother, yet this did not make Adam God's son. In fact, Adam is parentless.

On the other hand, why does one need a son? We humans desire having sons to give us strength and support especially when we become old. We also desire having sons to give us a sense of continuity through extended living after we die. Does God need support or help? Certainly, not. Does He need continuity? No, He does not because He is the Ever-living.

Having a son is exactly the opposite of God's nature. God is one, with no daughter or son. I see that the Oneness of God as emphasized by Islam is the only true concept of God.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

(46)

EQUALITY

I am C. M. Walker, 28 years. I have decided to become a Muslim because Islam is actually sent to all humans, all peoples, all countries, and all continents. Jesus was sent to the people of Israel only as Jesus himself said it very clearly in The Bible (Matthew 15:24).

No prophet came or will come after Prophet Muhammad. Prophet Muhammad was not sent to the Arabs only, as some people my think. He was sent to all peoples, including those in Europe and the two Americas.

Another thing that attracted me to Islam is the real equality among humans. Islam emphasizes equality and plants it so deep in the hearts of its followers that it has become a daily practice in their life. I bitterly remember, since I am a black American, those days when the blacks were not allowed to enter the churches of the whites. Let alone that we could not go to their schools, restaurants, and clubs. The whites, unfortunately, rejected the blacks so harshly and so cruelly. When the soil is sick, the trees and the fruits will be sick too.

I asked a friend of mine who used to live in the Middle East working at an oil company if Muslims there segregate against the blacks or other colors. He said that Muslims have never practiced any racial, color, or religious segregation inside the mosque or outside it.

To me, Islam looks like an oasis in the desert of the Christian world, which is a world full of big words, but empty of honorable practices. They talk about human rights in the Christian West, but what rights! They talk well and smile well, but they act ill. The US constitution sounds great, but when it comes to implementation, we blacks are simply lost because prejudice against us chases us wherever we go.

I converted from Christianity to Islam because Islam was sent to all humans and because Islam teaches equality and Muslims implement it in their actual daily life. Islam is not words only, but deeds as well. Islam is faith and behavior.

(47)

CONSISTENCY

I am T. B. James, 31 years. I am a student of philosophy, who likes to read about religion, philosophy, and humanities in general. I was a regular reader of The Bible especially since we find it everywhere and we are told by the church that it is God's word.

I noticed, to my amazement, that The Old Testament (OT) differs from The New Testament (NT) in basic things. For example, The OT always refers to God as one, Who has no equals. In contrast, The NT sometimes refers to the Trinity, i.e., three gods. The NT makes the father God and Jesus God and the Holy Spirit God.

The OT talks about one god; The NT talks about three gods though implicitly. The OT says that God has no equal, whereas The NT talks about Jesus being God's son, and, as we know, the son will be equal to his father, as he fully grows. The OT ignores the Day of Judgment and the other life, whereas The NT emphasizes them.

I began to wonder how The OT contradicts The NT on two basic creeds, i. e., God's nature and the Day of Judgment, when both The NT and The OT are supposed to be God's word, as we are always told by the church. The only possible explanation to this OT-NT contradiction is that The Bible, as it is now, is corrupted, and it is no more the pure word of God.

I had a Muslim classmate in my class and I began to ask him about Islam. I have been told that in Islam, God is one, has no son, and has no equal. There are a Doomsday, a Day of Judgment, a Day of Resurrection, the other life, Paradise, and Hell. Islam is consistent in all that it says. I have chosen Islam because of its consistency, clarity, and simplicity, and I am extremely happy that I have made this choice.

(48)

MIST AXES

I am B. W. Jeans, 47 years. I read a book on The Bible. It is a book analyzing The Bible. I am sorry I don't remember its title. That book gives examples of dozens of mistakes in The Bible, all sorts of mistakes. The writer of that book mentions mistakes in geography, mistakes in history, and contradictions inside the same gospel, contradictions inside The New Testament, contradictions inside The Old Testament, and contradictions between the two testaments. He said that The Bible has about thirty thousand mistakes, a horrifying number, for certain.

I myself was shocked at the figure. I said to myself if The Bible had been God's pure word, it would not have had even one single mistake; let alone 30,000 mistakes. In fact, some Christian analysts raise the number of Biblical mistakes up to about 50,000.

I doubted what the man wrote in his book. Hence, I began to check some of his criticisms and the Biblical mistakes which he referred to. In fact, he mentioned bout 200 mistakes. I didn't have time to check them all. I checked ten only. To my surprise, the writer was always right.

I could not but agree with him to the fact that The Bible is full of mistakes, all sorts of mistakes. Here is just one of them as an example: In Genesis (1) on the first page of The Bible, The Bible says that God created night and day on the first day of creation (Genesis 1:5). Then The Bible itself says that God created the sun, one of the two great lights, on the fourth day (Genesis 1:16-19). How can there be night and day on the first day, when the sun was created on the fourth day? This is just one example of mistakes coming right on the first page of The Bible.

The writer of that book emphasizes that The Holy Quran, a book revealed by God, is the last revealed book and it is void of any mistakes, which proves that it is God's true and pure word.

Since I was looking for a book that contains the pure word of God, I have taken The Holy Quran to be my holy book and Islam to be my sole religion.

(49)

BEFORE JESUS

I am R. E. Kinney, 51 years. The church makes the crucifixion of Jesus the core of Christianity. The argument which it always offers is the inability of man to save himself because he is born sinful, i.e., dirty with sin since his first minute on the earth. The church argues that without crucifixion man has no chance at all for self-salvation. Because God loves man, he sacrificed his only son, or himself, in order to save man. This is the Christian theory in brief.

Not all Christians can or could swallow the Christian theory easily. First, I myself, one of many, doubt original sin. The child, in fact, in my opinion, is born sinless ratter than sinful. Second, I do not agree to the Christian assumption that man cannot save himself because he is saturated with sin. Not all men are Satans. There are many persons of all ages and at all places who, if guided, are ready to obey and abide by the requirements of God's guidance. I do not agree that all persons are equally bad, as the Christian theory insists. There were, are, and will be always good persons, clean characters, and honorable people everywhere. Of course, man is capable of sinning, no doubt. Nevertheless, he is capable of righteousness as well.

The most important source of doubt that was raised in my mind is related to those who lived and died before Jesus' crucifixion. According to the Christian theory, the only way to get salvation is to believe in Jesus' crucifixion. To my astonishment, it follows then that none of those who died before Jesus' crucifixion could possibly be saved, not even those followers of Jesus who died one hour or one day before the so- called crucifixion. In other words, billions and billions of people, ie., all those who passed away before Jesus' crucifixion, will be sent to Hell for no fault on their part, but simply because they died before the event of crucifixion. They could not make it because they could not enjoy salvation through crucifixion. Is this reasonable? Will God send all pre-crucifixion people to Hell because they were not saved through the crucifixion of Jesus? Weren't there any good people at all before Jesus' crucifixion?

If salvation cannot happen except through the belief in Jesus' crucifixion, then those who died before it have no chance at all to salvation, which is unfair and unacceptable by all criteria.

My doubt urged me to look for the truth, to read more, and to inquire more. I was led to Islam. Islam holds that you are responsible for your deeds, whether good or bad; and you are judged by God; i.e., Allah, accordingly on the Day of Judgment. This Islamic belief makes man in race with time: he does his best to do as many good deeds as he can and to avoid sins as earnestly as he can. I find Islam much more logical and feel quite convinced of the Islamic answers to my persisting questions.



(50)

ALL PROPHETS

I am E. A. Lowell, 37 years. I have noticed that Christians do not accept Muhammad as prophet and do not accept The Holy Quran as holy. Unfortunately, Christians did to Muhammad what the Jews did to Jesus: disbelief in his message. Judging prophets for what they say and do, I read about Prophet Muhammad's life and read his sayings translated into English from Arabic. I found nothing wrong with what he said or did. In fact, I have never read something more respectable and superb than his sayings, which are full of sympathy and which urge people to be honorable, modest, cooperative, kind, virtuous, truthful, honest, straight, and sincere. He urged people to avoid hypocrisy, backbiting, talebearing, lying, false witnessing, and any other evil manners.

I have read parts of The Holy Quran translated into English. I have never seen a book like that: full of wisdom, righteousness, faith, urging for all virtues, and warning people against all vices.

There is no virtue not commanded to be done in The Holy Quran and Prophet Muhammad's sayings. There is no vice not commanded to be avoided.

Islam is great: it recognizes all prophets including Moses and Jesus. It recognizes all revealed books including the true Pentateuch revealed to Moses and the true Gospel revealed to Jesus. Islam includes Moses and Jesus. I admire Islam for its objectivity, comprehensiveness, and inclusion of all previous prophets and revealed books.

That is why I have become a Muslim thanks to God. I do urge all brethren not to miss the opportunity. Share the experience with me, and you will not regret it, I am sure.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

(41)

GAMBLING

I am M. E. Hilgard, 25 years. I was attending a Sunday church prayer when the pastor began talking about the dangers of gambling. I could not agree more to what he was preaching then. Meanwhile, he asked a question I wished I could have an answer to, "Is gambling prohibited in The Bible?" He said it was not disallowed in The Bible, in fact not mentioned at all.

I asked myself, "If gambling is so bad and so dangerous, which is true, why doesn't The Bible prohibit it?" This proves something important to me: The Bible is not complete; The Bible does not give enough guidance to people.

I said to myself if I can find a book or a religion where gambling is explicitly and categorically disallowed, this book must be God's complete and pure word. Upon inquiring, I came to know that The Holy Quran, the holy Book of Islam, disallows gambling very strongly. I concluded that The Holy Quran is God's complete pure word and that Islam is the true religion of God.

(42)

GOD'S LOVE

I am S. E. Combs, 33 years. Christianity emphasizes that God loves you and cares for you and that he sent his only son to the cross to die for you so as to save you. God does not want anything from you, not even good deeds; He just loves you. The church does not often talk about God; it usually talks about Jesus, God the son. God the Father is forgotten almost completely by the church. The church talks about a loving god; that's all.

As for me, I began to doubt the whole thing. I thought that it is not enough for God to offer us love. We should fear Him too. How can humans abstain from sins, crimes, and all kinds of misbehavior if they do not fear God? We need to love God, yes, but to fear Him too.

Islam teaches Muslims to love God and to fear Him at the same time. According to Islam, no one burdens your sins on behalf of you. You must observe your own behavior. You must be careful. You must strive to get God's love. God loves you if you deserve it, and He hates you if you deserve it too. I myself think that the Islamic view is the right one, the logical one, the view that really can control human behavior. That is why I have embraced Islam, and I thank God heartily that I came to the right decision before it would be too late.

(43)

ALCOHOL

I am W. T. Wallin, 41 years. I was married to a man who was madly fond of alcohol. As a result, he lost his job, and no one accepted to give him another chance as long as he was an alcoholic. I don't blame people for not hiring an alcoholic such as my husband. He began to mistreat our children and me including beating, calling bad names, insulting, and, the worst of all, falsely accusing me of adultery. Instead of him taking care of the family, he became a burden to the whole family, a social and financial burden.

Life with him became unbearable. Sometimes I asked God to end my life; death was better than living with him. I asked people whom I knew why The Bible did not prohibit alcohol since it is so destructive and so harmful. I asked if there is a religion which prohibits alcohol. They told me that Islam absolutely prohibits making or drinking alcohol, not a drop of it.

I thought that Islam must be the right religion because it always does what should be done. Islam, of course, has many other advantages, but, in my case, it is enough for Islam to disallow alcohol to be the greatest religion because alcoholism is, in fact, a horrible disease threatening millions of people in the West and all over the world.

(44)

THE ABSENCE
OF SPIRITUALITY

I am P. L. Seidman, 34 years. The key words in the Western life are dollars, salaries, income, production, sales, exports, imports, industry, and commerce. Our civilization is really " (In empty one and a nonbalanced one. The only thing it focuses on is money and whatever leads to money. In fact, we often send our military forces abroad for nothing but to kill in order to protect what we often call our interests, which is, indeed, an act of robbery at gunpoint involving stealing other countries' rights and natural resources. We kill for dollars, a shameful crime committed by both our gangs in our cities and by our governments abroad, with our church saying nothing in either case perhaps because all our sins are borne by Jesus, the Lamb! In media, we rarely hear anything about God. The Western civilization has killed its god or put it in the closet.

At our schools and universities, nothing is taught except technology, sciences, languages, and humanities. They teach anything except religion. They discuss anything except spiritual or God-related topics.

Parents are busy with their jobs. Our schools often instruct, but they rarely educate. The children are brought up spiritually empty with stone like hearts. They know little about mercy, tolerance, sympathy, pity, chastity, or decency.

In contrast, I know that schools in Islamic countries give a religion session almost every day. Students are made to learn by heart chapters and parts from The Holy Quran. Media make reference to God so recurrent and so essential in their pro gram content.

I like the spirituality of the Islamic countries. They live with Islam and Islam lives with them day by day and minute by minute. I like the great harmonious Islamic balance between spirituality and materialism.



(45)

GOD'S NAME

I am K. B. Trow, 30 years. Every one of us has a name. God, the Creator of all, must have a name. Christianity does not give Him a name although the name is there, i.e., Allah, which appears in the famous Biblical halleluyah. I was not at ease with Christianity hiding God's name and not using it although it is right there in The Bible.

Muslims call God Allah as God calls Himself. You cannot call one other than what he calls himself. The name Allah appears hundreds of times in The Holy Quran, the Holy Book of Islam.

The word god is not a name. It is a word referring to a common noun. It can be pluralized into gods and can be feminized into goddess. It can be written in a small letter or a capital letter. The Greeks had many gods and goddesses. Only the word Allah is God's name.

I take Muslims seriously, and I do respect them very highly because they take serious matters seriously enough. They do not have fun when it comes to Allah. They glorify Allah very highly. No people on the earth did, do, or will glorify Allah more than Muslims do. Faith in Allah comes first in their life. This is so because Islam, being God's true religion, is the most comprehensive, convincing, logical, simple, useful, and helpful creed. You can find no faults with it, no defects, and no inner-contradictions. It is simply superb. That is why, among other reasons, I have chosen Islam to be my religion.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

(36)

LOST ORIGINALS

I am T. H. Bode, 37 years. Whenever I went to church to attend the Sunday sermon, I heard the pastor emphasizing that The Bible is God's word. After one of those sermons, I privately asked the pastor whether the original of The Bible is in English. His answer was in the negative. Then I asked him about the original of The New Testament. He said that its original is lost.

I truly began to wonder how the original of a book supposed to be God's word is lost. Had Christians been serious about their Book, they would not have lost its original. How can we be ever sure that the translations which we have nowadays do really correspond to the original? If The Bible had been meant to be God's final word, God would have preserved its original. Since this original is not preserved and is actually lost, this proves that God does not want it to be His final word.

In contrast, the Arabic original of The Holy Quran of Islam has been kept safe and sound for the last fifteen centuries. When a Muslim says about The Holy Quran that it is God's word, he has the full right to say so with the original right in his hand. I have figured out that Chrisu'an clergy are living in a world of fancy, and they are sure of nothing, not even of the book which they repeatedly claim that it is God's word.

I have chosen Islam because The Holy Quran, the book of Islam, is God's true pure word.

(37)

CHURCH PRAYER

I am K. U. Park, 46 years. What happens in every church on Sunday differs from what happens in other churches. Every pastor conducts the prayer in his own way. The prayer audience do nothing but listen and say amen upon the pastor's request. Let alone laughter, joking, singing, music, and miscellaneous acts that differ from time to time, from place to place, from sermon to sermon, and from church to church. One pastor criticized the way Christians pray and said it does not include prostration, the importance of which he strongly emphasized as a symbol of complete submission to God. He even asked sinners in his audience to approach the platform and, despite their embarrassment, confess publicly because, as he put it, God came to us publicly.

I began to wonder why Christians do not pray as Jesus did. I felt that Christians do not have an example to imitate. I thought that The New Testament should tell us how to pray, which it does not. If prostration in prayer is essential, as the pastor sees, why don't we do it? Why doesn't The New Testament command us to do so? I had strong feelings that Christianity is very far from being complete, not in any aspect at all.

One day, it came to my mind to ask a Muslim friend to allow me to attend a Muslim prayer at the mosque. Since I did not know Arabic, the language of Islam allover the world, I was interested mainly in the explicit components of prayer. I saw it include the positions of standing, bowing, kneeling, sitting and prostration. I sawall persons performing prayer do all the movements together in straight lines, led by the prayer leader, saying the same statements. The Islamic prayer is performed exactly in the same way at millions of mosques all over the world by millions of Muslims. It is performed exactly in the same manner as Prophet Muhammad did it fifteen hundred years ago.

Comparing the Islamic prayer and Christian prayer, I felt that Islamic prayer is a godly one, more divine, more spiritual, more submissive to God, more unified, more unifying, more social, and more meaningful than any other prayer I have ever experienced. Islam is indeed perfect in all its ways and aspects.

(38)

A BURIED GOD!

I am I. S. Thomson, 39 years. Christianity holds that Jesus is God incarnate and that, after his crucifixion, death, and burial for three days, he was raised alive. I could not understand how God can possibly be buried, nor how he can be dead for three days. My concept of God is that he is the Ever-living. No god died except the Christian god, to my surprise. The church story about God's death made me doubt all the church stories about crucifixion, original sin, and salvation. The more you think about Christianity, the less convinced you become. In contrast, the more you think about Islam, the more convinced you become. God, in Islam, does not ever die; nor can He be ever buried. The Islamic concept of God fits very well in my logic and understanding. This is how the story of my Islam began.

(39)

SEPARATION OF
THE TWO SEXES

I am D. S. Finney, 36 years. The church welcomes the intermingling of the two sexes without any restrictions whatsoever. They mingle everywhere, at any time, whether necessarily or unnecessarily. The result is obvious: boyfriends and girlfriends, dating, fornication-making, now called love-making, adultery, drinking, dancing, and a long list of sexually-stimulated behaviors.

When a Western man gets married, he usually keeps in touch with his ex-girlfriends, and they usually keep in touch with him as well. When a woman gets married, she usually continues to keep in touch with her ex-boyfriends. The result is that the husband rarely remains loyal to his wife and the wife rarely remains loyal to her husband.

The free intermingling of the two sexes is blessed by the church and the clergy. I have never heard a pastor warning people against intermingling and its dangerous consequences. Everybody, including the clergy, seems happy with the intermingling behavior although it is extremely destructive to society, family, and marriage; nevertheless, nobody cares.

Being a psychologist, I thought of the matter deep. According to my experience with my clients, I noticed that most of their problems, especially the marital ones, are caused by the non-restricted intermingling Christian habits. I had a Muslim friend, with whom I used to discuss different things, one of which was the intermingling habit in our Christian community. To my surprise, he explained to me that Islam disallows the free intermingling of the two sexes. Islam puts restrictions on this matter. For example, no man and woman can meet alone in a room, house, or office. No woman can travel alone. No man can visit a woman alone in her home. Women should cover their bodies and wear untight clothes. Women cannot go on streets with make-ups or perfumes on.

I came to the conclusion that if I am for a clean society, I should embrace Islam, which I fortunately did two years ago. Islam looks at the woman as a dignified person, not as a sexy female. In Islam, the woman is a person first. In our Christian civilization, she is a sexy female first. I personally prefer the woman's role as designed by Islam. I feel that Islam respects the woman's humanity and dignity more than any other belief. Islam is perfect in all its aspects, not in this aspect only.

(40)

FAMILY PROTECTION

I am M. B. Home, 27 years. The family in the West has no chance to hold together, no chance at all. I was a student and had many girlfriends at the school stage and the university stage. I had several jobs after graduation, and had many office female colleagues. I went to parties, where I made some more female friends. Then I married a girl, and her female friends became mine too.

Thus, I ended with about seventy girlfriends, most of whom I dated, danced with picnicked with, kissed, hugged, and even went beyond that in many cases. Now, how can I stay loyal to my wife with seventy ex-girlfriends around me? Most of them are more beautiful, more sexy, and more cute than my wife. They used to phone me, to visit me, to invite me, and write to me. Most of them, in fact, tried more than once to seduce me.

What applies to me applies to almost all men in the Christian world. Women in the West also have boyfriends and male classmates, and male office mates. Every man has his past relations, and every woman has her past relations.

It is rather impossible, literally so, that a man or a woman can stand against the temptations of the Christian life. Only a few do not commit fornication before marriage or adultery after marriage.

The family is dying in the Christian West. Marriage is dying. Divorce is the rule and a protected surviving marriage is the exception. Everybody there is somehow tortured from within although he seems happy or pretends to be so.

In Islamic communities, the opposite is true. Divorce is the exception and a continued marriage is the rule. The family is well protected. Most men and almost all women do not practice sex outside marriage. It is a blessing to be a Muslim or live in an Islamic society, where the father can rest assured that his child is really his, where loyalty is the rule, where virginity is something holy, where no man touches any woman except his wife, and where no woman touches any man except her husband. Such a life is a real life, a clean life, a secure life, an ethical life, a godly life, a righteous life with a special taste, indeed.

When I became a Muslim, I felt really clean, internally pure, spiritually happy, and fully conscientious. I became a completely different person with a different look and a different objective. My objective now, the main one, is to obey God and be ready for the Day of Judgment.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

(31)

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

I am R. E. Landis, 49 years. No theory or creed destroyed people's lives more than Christianity did. Jesus is the Lamb. Believe in him, and hold that he died to save you and you are saved. You are not required to do anything good. Just take Jesus as your savior and you are saved. Your deeds do not save you. If so, why was Jesus crucified? You are saved by Jesus, blood, not by your good deeds. These are some of the Christian clichés which we often hear in church sermons.

This strange creed puts the good guys and the bad guys on equal footing. No matter what you do, you are saved, provided that you take Jesus as your savior.

I could not accept a naive creed such as Christianity, which makes good persons equal to bad persons. In contrast, Islam makes everyone responsible to God for whatever he does or says. You bear your own sins; no one will bear them for you. I think that Islam establishes individual responsibility very obviously, and this makes more sense to me rather than being saved by the Lamb, in my modest opinion.




(32)

UNBELIEVABLE!

I am C. I. Hunt, 24 years. I was attending a Sunday sermon when the pastor said, "I am not asking you to give the poor in charity or do good deeds in order to guarantee Paradise. You don't need good deeds to send you there. Just believe in Jesus and that he died for you."

When I heard what I heard, I could not believe my ears. How could a pastor discourage people from doing good deeds? It was both frustrating and unbelievable, indeed.

In Islamic Friday sermons, the main focus of the speaker is to urge people to do good deeds and to abstain from bad deeds. I compared the two speakers, and I came to the clear conclusion that the church preacher simply destroys the community's ethics, whereas the mosque preacher obviously builds them. That is why I have chosen the mosque, rather than the church.

(33)

WOMEN'S APPEARANCE

I am B. H. Johnson, 25 years. Women in my country, USA, feel free to wear whatever they wish the way they wish. The Bible says nothing about how women should appear; nor does the church say anything, or it may have nothing to say. The woman in the Christian West exposes almost all her nude body, and sometimes exactly all her body, on streets, beaches, and parties. I don't like the almost-nude woman in my country. In fact, the sexual instinct is strong enough in men, and it certainly does not need any further external stimulation. The semi-nudeness of women ignites the sexual motive of men. The result is in fornication, adultery, or sexual suppression. This repeated suppression and deprivation may end up in crimes with sexual motives or create grudge and hatred between a lot of people from both sexes.

I have lived in the Middle East for seven years. I saw Muslim women dressed decently covering all their bodies, walking decently, looking down on the road, not gazing here and there. I admire the Muslim women’s decency, resulting from the clear regulations of Islam related to women’s clothes and appearance. If you are looking for women's decency, nothing but Islam can create it. This is just one of the great aspects that have attracted me to Islam.

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SELFISHNESS

I am D. L. Kelley, 27 years. The church holds that Jesus bore and bears all our sins so as to save all humans and us. I thought that this belief represents the acme of selfishness. The holders of this belief want all that is good for them selves only and all that is bad for others only. They want pleasure, money, success, and life enjoyments for themselves. However, when it comes to sin, the pain of sin, and the cost of sin, they simply transfer all of that to Jesus, and they want him to bear not one sin, not two, not one million, not one billion sins, but an infinite number of sins: all sins committed by all people through all times. What selfishness this is! How unfair they are!

Is it not better that each one bears his own sin? Is it not fair and square this way? I do not like the idea that I sin and somebody else bears my sin. The one who does it should be the one who bears it. I do it, and I bear it. This teaches everybody to be ethically responsible for what he does before people and before God. I prefer the principle of ethical responsibility as adopted by Islam.


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IF HE

I am K. J. Lavater, 31 years. The church pastor, night and day, refers to Jesus as God, the Lord, or God's son. I thought that it would be impossible that Jesus is God or God's son, as the pastor likes to assume.

Let us imagine a person in our time coming to say to us, "Listen to me. I am God. Look at me. I am God." What would be our reaction? We will call him mad immediately, and he will be taken to rest at the nearest lunatic asylum within a few minutes. Previous prophets were rejected by their peoples, harmed, or tortured for saying very much less than being God or God's son. They merely said that they are God's messengers, yet they were not easily believed in.

I would strongly argue that had Jesus said that he was God or God's son, he would have been killed immediately. Had Jesus been here with us and heard what the pastor says about his being God or God's son, he would have silenced the pastor instantly, might have killed him out of uncontrollable rage, or suffered an immediate heart attack.

I can’t see how a man like Jesus is considered a god by the church. Christianity always chooses the most complicated and most illogical explanation or doctrine, whereas Islam always gives the easiest and most logical explanation. In Islam, Jesus is a man. He is a messenger sent by God to the people of Israel only. God gave him some miracles, as he did give to all other prophets before or after him.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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PEOPLE OF ISRAEL ONLY

I am W. W .Greene, 36 years. One night, I was reading in The New Testament when I came across a sentence said by Jesus which I had never seen before. Jesus said, "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matthew 15:24)

I could not believe my eyes. Jesus was sent to the people of Israel only. This is what Jesus himself confirms, and his statement stands there right in The Bible. Please, check it right now.

I remembered what a Muslim friend once said to me, ie., that every prophet was sent to his own people except Prophet Muhammad, who was sent by God to all humans. My friend's words were true and came to be verified by Jesus himself.

Jesus was sent to the people of Israel only. Since I am not from the people of Israel, Jesus was not sent to me. The one sent to me is Prophet Muhammad with his message of Islam. Jesus himself told his people to follow Prophet Muhammad when he would come. Jesus said, "Howbeit when he, the spirit of truth, is come, lie will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himselj:" (John 16: 13-14)

Jesus tells us to follow Prophet Muhammad, but the people of the West have turned their backs on Prophet Muhammad exactly as the Jews did turn their backs on Jesus. This is, in fact, the real tragedy of both the Jews and the people of the West; they have rejected God and His final perfect message, which is Islam.

If you love Jesus, you must love Prophet Muhammad and believe in him as God's last Messenger. This is exactly what Jesus wants us to do, and this is exactly what I have done.

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BEARER OF SINS

I am R. L. Dodge, 30 years. I could not see how one may bear others' sins. This is an invitation to people to sin as often as they wish. The Christian advice is always this: sin and sin and sin; don't you ever worry a bout your sins because Jesus is there; he loves you, and he will bear all your sins with all pleasure. Christianity gives its followers an open check for sinning. The church always emphasizes that Jesus came to bear all our sins.

Islam says that everyone is responsible for his own deeds before God and no one bears another's sin. That is it: very simple and very logical. I like the logic of Islam and the individual's ethical accountability adopted by Islam.



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CRUCIFIXION

I am H. P. Harrell, 33 years. All Christianity centers around the cross and Jesus' crucifixion. I don't see how the whole religion may center around one single incident or accident, i.e., crucifixion. Crucifixion happened at the end of Jesus' short three-year mission. What about Jesus' followers who died before his so- called crucifixion? Christianity holds that if you believe in Jesus' crucifixion, you are saved. The problem, accordingly, is that Jesus' followers who died before his crucifixion will go to Hell because they failed to meet the salvation requirements. You cannot build a whole creed on a death incident. Christianity finds pleasure in Jesus' death on the cross. I do not see much guidance in the story of crucifixion. Let alone the strong doubt in the truthfulness of crucifixion per se.

I have come across a book that contains some sayings of Prophet Muhammad. There I read several hundreds of sayings full of daily guidance, legislations, pieces of wisdom, ethics of behavior, and sincere counseling needed by us all. There is a big difference between the two religions: Christianity centering around the cross and Islam centering around guidance. If you hear Christian preachers, their main focus is Jesus' crucifixion; if you hear Muslim preachers, their main focus is guidance related to daily behavior. What actually and practically helps you and me is guidance, not crucifixion stories.


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WHAT IS HE?

I am S. A. Hilden, 37 years. The church talks about Jesus as the son of God. Then it refers to him as God. Until today, I have never been able to see how Jesus could be God and the son of God at the same time. I feel that Christianity is a net of unsolved riddles. There are many statements in The New Testament where Jesus thanks God or prays to God. If Jesus prays to God, then he cannot possibly be God, yet the church chooses to ignore such facts. The church can say whatever it likes to say, but what counts is not to say; it is to convince.

I thought that if Jesus himself prays to God and thanks God, why would we thank Jesus and pray to Jesus? We must thank God, not Jesus.

Christianity has caused me a lot of confusion, in fact. The pastor himself seemed confused too: sometimes he prays to Jesus; sometimes he prays to God; sometimes he prays to God via Jesus. Is Jesus God or God's son or one of three gods or vice-God? The whole thing is just chaos.

Islam gives a clear simple constant answer. Jesus was God's messenger to the people of Israel only. That is it. He is neither God nor God's son. He is just Mary's son, sent by God as His messenger, exactly like Abraham, Moses, and Muhammad.


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Slaying the son!

I am N. M. James, 47 years. The church pastor used to repeat that God slew His son in order to save us, but the story was never received very well in my mind. Why should God slay His only son? Because He loves us. Well, if He loves us, He should love His son even more, and He would not sacrifice him for anyone or anything.

I could not accept the claim that God slew His son Jesus to save us. God, being The Almighty, could surely have a better way, a way fairer and cleaner, rather than slaying His poor innocent kid.

Islam says that God saved Jesus from his enemies, and thus he was not crucified. I accept this Islamic story to be more in line with God's power, mercy, and justice.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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THE INTERCESSOR

I am L. J. Cox, 35 years. In Christianity, in order to repent, you have to go to the priest as an intercessor. In Islam, you can just say what you want to say directly to God without the intercession of anyone.

In Islam, there are no intercessors between man and God. I like the simplicity of Islam and the direct relationship between man and God.






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MORE COMPREHENSIVE

I am N. R. Mansfield, 42 years. Christianity tells you not to kill, steal, or commit adultery, but it does not tell about the punishment of possible transgressors. In contrast, Islam prohibits such crimes and at the same time sets a deterring penalty for each crime. I find Islam more comprehensive, more practical, and more related to the needs of life. Islam gives moral guidance and penal laws at the same time.

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GOD'S FAMILYI

I am S. B. Lecky, 51 years. The reason why I have embraced Islam is that I have heard many non-understandable and unacceptable things in Christianity. For example, it is said that God has a son. We know that Jesus' mother is Mary. If God is Jesus' father and Mary is Jesus' mother, it follows that Mary is God's wife. Thus, God has a family. I could not accept a god with a family. I accept this about humans, but not about God.

I asked about God in Islam and I was told that God according to Islam has no sons, no wife, was not beaten, did not beget, and has no partners and no equals. I find that the concept of God in Islam is very much more convincing than the concept of God in Christianity.

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GOD'S AGENT!

I am A. H. Horton, 28 years. Something surprised me when I was listening to a sermon at a church. The pastor said that God authorized Jesus to judge people on his behalf on the Day of Judgment. He gave him an exclusive agency and an absolute authorization.

I asked myself why God would do so. We humans give such an agency when we are busy or not available at a certain place or time. Such limitations do not apply to God, Who is never too busy to do anything, and He is available at all places and all times. I could not swallow that exclusive-agency story.

I asked a Muslim friend about who judges on the Day of Judgment. His answer was God and no one but God. Judging people is the most important thing in the two lives, i. e., this first life and the other life. Why would God skip it? I am convinced more by the Islamic scenario.

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FOUR GODS!

I am S. J. Cason, 27 years. The church says that God the Father is God. God has a son and, as we know, the son is like his father. So Jesus is a God also. A God cannot marry but a goddess. Here, up till now we have three gods. Don't forget God the Holy Spirit. Hence, we end up with four gods: God the father, God the Son, Goddess the Mother, and God the Holy Spirit.
I could not understand why there are four gods, who would quarrel or disagree. If the four gods are equal, each one of them will compete with the others. They may give contrary instructions or teachings. Which god are we going to obey? If they are not equal, then only one of them is God and the other three are inferior to Him. I could not buy the Christian four-god theory or even the three-god theory.

Islam gives us the clear concept of monotheism. There is no god but God, i.e., Allah, as he calls Himself. Islam emphasizes the Oneness of God. I am for this Oneness.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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SON OF MAN

I am L. B. Allport, 43 years. It has shocked me to see how much contradiction there is between what Jesus says in The New Testament and what the church attributes to him. I used to read The New Testament, where everyone can see how often Jesus himself reiterates that he is the son of man. In fact, he said it about eighty times. In contrast, he has never said in The New Testament that he is God or God's son, not once. Nevertheless, to my great amazement, the church keeps ignoring what Jesus has emphasized and keeps emphasizing what he has never said.

It is quite unusual for the church to emphasize Jesus' sonship to God, which he never pronounced, and to ignore his sonship to man, which he repeated about eighty times in The New Testament. Today's Christianity is basically different from Jesus' Christianity.

Upon reading The Holy Quran of Islam, I have found that Islam emphasizes Jesus' sonship to man, i.e., to Mary. Hence, I believe that The Holy Quran is telling the truth, the straight truth. I like my Holy Book to be clear, simple, straight, and comprehensive, which is fortunately the case with The Holy Quran, and not with other books. –

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DIVORCE

I am S. E. Anderson, 22 years. Jesus in The New Testament and Catholic Christianity disallow divorce except for adultery. But later, all Christian countries, including Catholic ones, have realized that it is impractical and dangerous to disallow divorce to a couple who cannot continue to live together as husband and wife. Hence, one can easily see that The New Testament regulation, in fact Jesus' regulation concerning divorce, is not valid any more; nor was it valid any time for actual human needs.

Christian teachings are often not in line with human nature, and the divorce issue is just an example. In contrast, Islam has been decisive on this issue since its beginning: divorce is allowed, yet it is most hated by God. Islam allows divorce and at the same time discourages it. This is a very balanced, practical, and acceptable legislation. I like the practicality and consistency of Islam.

Islam has unchangeable and clear basics, unlike Christianity, which keeps on changing.

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TWO-BOSS FAMILIES

I am T. M. Baker, 33 years. In Western families, the wife usually refuses the leadership of her husband, and he refuses to be Number Two in the family order. Thus, the Christian family ends up with two bosses. The empty misleading motto of man-woman equality has blown the heads of women and cut off the wings of poor men. The tragic result is manly women and womanly men.

Every institution in the west and the east has one boss except the Western family: it is destined to have two bosses. No ship can make it with two captains. With two captains, the ship is bound to sink, as it is always said. So does the Western family; with two bosses, it goes nowhere or in fact down to the bottom. The Western family is, unfortunately, a sinking ship.

According to Islam, this matter has been already settled in a very clear and specific manner: the husband is the boss. This does not rule out wife-husband consultations over family matters, yet a boss is always needed at every institution, and the family is no exception. The husband in the Islamic family knows his role very well; the wife knows and accepts her own role and admits her husband's role, and all goes on quite smoothly and harmoniously. Islam gives more stability to the family than any other religion or creed.

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CRISSCROSS LINES

I am E. R. Bartlett, 31 years. Christianity does not organize man-woman relationships in the right way. Men and women mix together even in the church itself. They mix together at schools, offices, companies, streets, homes, parties, beaches, and everywhere. Although The New Testament says if your eye gazes at a woman, you must tear it out, our eyes do nothing but gaze at women simply because women are around men at all places and all times, often in seclusion and in seductive semi-nudeness, in most cases.

The New Testament disallowed gazing at women, but it said nothing about their clothes, nor about what parts of the female's body are to be
covered; nor did it warn against seclusion, i.e., a man being alone with a woman.

In contrast, in Islam, free unnecessary mixing is disallowed. So is seclusion and so is women's semi-nudeness. Islam makes decency practically possible: no mixing, no seclusion, and no nudeness. Christianity makes decency impossible due to incomplete guidance.

I see that Islam makes the conditions of decency more available. Islam specifically orders the woman to cover all her body except the face and hands. Islam disallows man-woman seclusion. Islam disallows a man to visit a woman in her husband's absence. Islam closes the doors to adultery in a superb manner. For a clean society, I prefer Islam.

In the Christian society, we have crisscross lines. Eyes travel in all directions hunting female naked flesh exposed everywhere, and there are hence only two choices, no more: either the lust is actualized and adultery takes place or the lust is silenced. In both cases, individuals and the whole community suffer.

Islam saves us this dilemma by arranging for man-woman separation. No lust is given the chance to show its head in the first place.


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NO TEACHINGS

I am W. B. Beadle, 37 years. Christian preaching in the church focuses on the person of Jesus, his miracles, the cross, his crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. We rarely hear anything about moral teachings. I understand that the most important thing that a person does need in every- day life is, in fact, to hear some teachings that guide him as to what is good or bad, and what is right or wrong; such guidance is surprisingly missing in church sermons.

Out of curiosity, I entered a mosque, the Islamic prayer place. I listened to the sermon, which a friend translated to me later. To my surprise, all the sermon was on codes of behavior, daily behavior. The prayer leader was repeatedly quoting The Holy Quran and the sayings of Prophet Muhammad.

If you are looking for a perfect and detailed code of daily behavior, Islam gives you this code. That is why I have decided to go to Islam, as a matter of fact.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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A DEAD GOD!

I am D. E. Spence, 44 years. I could not logically accept that Jesus can be God, as the church insists. Jesus has a birth date. He was hungry as The New Testament tells. He was a baby in the cradle. He was put to trial. He was crucified (as the church believes). He died for three days, according to the church.

To me, the Christian god is oddly unique among all gods. He was the only one to be born, the only one to be crucified, and the only one to be dead. No god can be dead and remain a god at the same time.

Through my readings, I learned that the God of Islam is the Eternal, has no beginning, has no end, has no equal, and has no son, no wife, and no daughter.

To me, the concept of God in Islam is much more logical and much more convincing.

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THE WORKING WOMAN

I am W. B. Underwood, 35 years. I had a wife, who insisted on working at a leading company as a secretary. She took the job against my will. She turned her back on me, on our home, and on our three kids. Our life became a kind of a hell. I did not know whether I was to play the father's role or the mother's role. Our children were almost lost. Our home was in a mess.

In the meantime, I had a Muslim colleague at my work. I discussed my family's crisis with him since it was continuously on my mind. To my surprise, he said, "In our religion, i.e., Islam, the wife cannot work outside her home unless her husband agrees. In Islam, the main job of the wife is home-making: to take care of home, husband, and kids. Anything else comes second."

The Islamic life pattern makes a lot of sense, indeed. According to Islam, everyone works but at the right place: women at home and men outside, and everything goes on so smoothly and harmoniously. We, in the West, work, but often in the wrong place, and home is left for maids and baby-sitters. Our women go in and out, early and late, night and day; nobody knows why or where; it is a complete chaos under the fatal pretext of man-woman equality.

As far as I am concerned, I see that the Islamic pattern of life is by far better for men, women, and all. Women, in Islam, work outside homes, but not all of them do and without showing the Western woman's work-mania. When they do, their work is conditioned by the husband's full consent and without sacrificing their essential roles as mothers, wives, and housewives.

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MAN-WOMAN EQUALITY

I am C. S. Verplanck, 26 years. In the West, I we are told by our church, media, and everybody that men and women are equal, so equal that men wanted to be women and women wanted to be men! We squeeze women everywhere to herald this parrot -repeated so-called equality. Women want to be whatever men are. They want to dress themselves as men do, to go wherever men go, to take the same jobs men take whether they can shoulder them or not. This equality mania is going too far and is becoming, in fact, rather ridiculous and funny, and sometimes tragic.

According to my experience about Muslim societies in the Middle East and according to my knowledge about Islam, men and women are equal before law, before God, and in social dignity, but not equal, or necessarily so, in function. By her very nature, a woman is different from a man. I am not saying that she is superior or inferior to him. I am just saying that she is merely different. There are certain characteristics of either sex, and there are certainly some advantages of each sex over the other.

In my opinion, equality in function is unfair. There are areas where women are better and areas where men are better. Life is not a war between the two sexes; it is rather a cooperative scheme between them. This is how Islam looks at it and how Islam organizes the status of the two sexes. I see that the Islamic pattern is the right one and that Islam organizes the roles of both men and women in an ideal way.

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HOME-MAKING

I am A. J. Wychkoff, 31 years. I do not like the Western Christian life pattern, where husband- wife roles are so confused. The woman in the West wants to eat the cake and have it at the same time. She wants to be a home-maker, wife, mother, and employee, all together. How can she be at home and at the job at the same time? Is she going to care for her home and her children by remote control from her office?!

Islamic societies, by Islamic regulations, have solved this problem nicely and neatly. The husband wins the bread and the wife cares for home. In the West, both win the bread and both forget home! I personally prefer the Islamic pattern of life: I feel that it is nicer and neater, and brings more harmony to the family.

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GOD AND THE CROSS

I am N. B. Alexander, 30 years. I could not see how the Christian god is God and a Iamb on the cross at the same time. I could not reconcile the concept of the Almighty God with the concept of a crucified God. The church's god is the only god that ended that way: slain on a piece of wood and then buried.

God in Islam is different. He meets the requirements of a real god. He was not slain or buried. He is the Conqueror, the Able, and the Ever-living. This is the god I like to believe in.

WHY DID THESE PEOPLE EMBRACE ISLAM?

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SEPARATION OF
MEN AND WOMEN

My name is A. E. Hull, 33 years. I am a chemist. My personal experience, first-haIid experience, has taught me that the Western way of life is not good and, in fact, very dangerous to both men and women alike.

In the West, men and women mix freely everywhere, anywhere, and at all times. The result is that most people are quite ready for easy seduction. There are many women in every man's heart and dreams, and there are many men in every woman's heart and dreams. Almost everybody in the West is ready for fornication or adultery.

I lived in Saudi Arabia for five years. There, as in most Islamic countries, the two sexes mingle only in a very limited scope according to the teachings of Islam, which discourages the free intermingling of the two sexes. The result, in Islamic societies, is less problems, less divorce, stronger marriages, and more enduring families.

Comparing our Western way to the Islamic way of living, I have come to the practical conclusion from practical premises that Islam is the best to organize human life and to lead man to a very stable social and psychological security.

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NO ALCOHOL

I am H. Q. Lawrence, 36 years. I have a Muslim friend, whom I used to invite to have a drink with me, i.e., to drink alcohol. He always refused to drink because Islam prohibits alcohol. I told him that Jesus turned water into alcohol, and that was Jesus' first miracle in public. I urged him to drink a little, just one glass or one sip. In spite of all my insistence, he strongly refused with no hesitation and said that one sip of alcohol, according to Islam, is as disallowed as a jug.

From that moment on, as a result of my friend's adherence to his religion and his absolute refrain from alcohol, I began to seriously think of that religion, i.e., Islam, which cares so much for the health of its followers. It must be God's true religion. I have declared my Islam since then.

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MAKING A DIFFERENCE

I am P. L. Mowrer, 29 years. To be a Christian makes no difference since Christians eat, drink, and behave like non-Christians where as if you are a Muslim, it makes a difference with regard to what you eat, what you drink, how you behave, how you think, and what you say or do. Islam is a complete code of behavior. Islam has its say on every basic matter of life. I noticed the positive influence of Islam on some of my Muslim friends at the company where I used to work. Their behavior was obviously positively different from others. This means that Islam is a turning point, a factor at work, not words said on Sundays and forgotten on Mondays.

Because Islam can be the most influential positive factor in a man's life, I have decided to be a Muslim.

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HOW TO SERVE

I am B. P. Premack, 37 years. Church sermons often emphasize the concept of Jesus entering our hearts. The pastor used to repeat and ask us to repeat after him, "Jesus, my Lord, enter my heart. Let me serve you”

After the sermon, I asked the pastor, "Is God our Lord or is Jesus our Lord?" Believe it or not, he said, "Look, my son, the whole thing is confusing even to me. In fact, I don't know. I feel that God, not Jesus, is our Lord."

Then I asked the pastor, "If we have been already saved by Jesus' crucifixion, why should we serve Jesus or even God?" He could not answer this question either. "Serve him" means "obey him". If we have to obey God in order to be saved, why was Jesus on the cross? We are always told by the church that Jesus was crucified so as to save us, but then we are told that we have to obey God in order to be saved. Then, the church has never made it clear to me or to any other Christian whether God and Jesus are one person or two. I have always felt that things are not clear even to churchmen themselves.

I could not take any more puzzling hints from the church. In Islam, Jesus is just God's messenger to the people of Israel, and Muhammad is God's messenger to all humans. I am quite satisfied with how Islam puts things.


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MORE DETAILS

I am C. E. Seward, 49 years. Once, I asked the priest if Jesus has left any teachings about how to distribute inheritance after the death of any person. He answered in the negative. I told him that everyone dies and leaves inheritance to be distributed among heirs. How could The New Testament leave such an important problem untouched?

I had a Muslim neighbor, and I asked him if his Holy Book, i.e. The Holy Quran, has anything to say about the subject. He told me that The Holy Quran, the word of God according to Muslims, gives detailed teachings on the matter of inheritance distribution.

I began to ponder and wonder which book is the real Holy Book: a book that ignores the essential matters of life or a book which never ignores such matters. I came to the obvious conclusion that The Holy Quran is the true and pure word of God, and Islam is His true religion.