A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following article, British & Muslim , is based on a lecture given to a conference of British converts, by Shaykh ‘Abd al-Hakim Murad Timothy John Winter, on 17 th September 1997.   It is said that the 19 th century French poet Étienne Mallarmé can only be fully understood by those who are not French, because they read him more slowly.   Converts to Islam, the subject of this essay, can perhaps claim the same ambiguous advantage in their reading of the Islamic narrative.   Several consequent questions impose themselves: can the clarity of vision brought by novelty outweigh the absence of a Muslim upbringing?   Is adoption a more culturally fertile condition than simple sonship?   Has the dynamism of Islamic culture after the initial Arab era owed everything to the energy of recent converts, with their own ethnic genius: the Persians, and then, pre-eminently, the Turks; and if so, might the appearance of converts...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is adapted from Signs on the Horizons by Shaykh Harun Michael Sugich.   “At that time the summer capital of Saudi Arabia was in Tha’if and all the government was in the mountain city.  My brother-in-law had a friend from Tha’if who offered to help get me to the Minister.  The friend was Bukhari, a Saudi of Central Asian extraction.  He was very friendly and well-meaning but also a little crazy, and I was completely at his mercy.  By this time, it was Ramadhan, the month of fasting, and during the day my new friend regaled me with stories about his sexual fantasies until I had to ask him to stop.  When we would get to his house in the afternoons, he would light up a cigarette and eat - just being in his company made me feel like I was breaking my fast.   A kindly Indian professor I met in Jiddah had generously lent me his car to use while he was away on his summer break, and my helper from Tha...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is the conversion story of Omar Ghazali Grant, who has since passed away.   “My name is Omar Ghazali Grant and I am sixty-seven years old.  I said my shahadah in 1995.  As a child I was raised in the Anglican faith, the Church of England.  I was sent off every Sunday, to Sunday school, from a very young age - and I hated it!  I was a very bright young child with an enquiring mind but my questions about the meaning of the Trinity and the real nature of Jesus ( a.s. ) and others were usually met with the answer, ‘You will understand when you grow up!’   At the age of twelve, I was allowed by my parents to make up my own mind about it all and I immediately stopped going to church.  In my teenage years, I started to study other religions and philosophies; I read of Judaism, Buddhism, Taoism, Zen philosophy and the Indian religions and many other beliefs.  I studied mysticism.  In t...