A Muslim Convert Once Before

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...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   The following is extracted from “The Way of the Lover: Rumi & the Spiritual Art of Love”, by Ustadz Ross Heaven ( r.a. ).   Shaykh Muhyi ad-Din Abu ‘Abdullah Muhammad ibn ‘Ali ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) said:   “I follow the religion of Love; Whatever way Love’s camels take, That is my religion and my faith.”   “The people of taswawwuf , the Sufis are lovers of the Divine.  The great Sufi masters like Shaykh ibn ‘Arabi ( q.s. ) and Mawlana Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi ( q.s. ) are beacons lighting the way for all travellers on the path of love.  This path begins at the heart and ends at the heart.  But the ways of God are strange and so are the ways of man, which is only fitting if you consider that Sufis believe man was made in the image of God, and so this pathway to love and the Divine may not always be simple or clear.   In the old days, for example, in the city of Gangowah, India, there was ...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Stephen Schwartz is an author and journalist.  He wrote “The Two Faces of Islam: The House of Sa’ud from Tradition to Terror.”  He is a vociferous critic of Wahhabism.  Stephen Schwartz was Washington bureau chief for the “Jewish Forward” and an editorial writer for the “Voice of America”.  Prior to that. he was an interfaith activist in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo.  His previous books include studies of the Spanish Civil War, the radical culture of California, and the Kosovo War.   The following is the transcript of an interview by Kathryn Jean Lopez, on the 18 th November 2002, and published in “The National Review” as “The Good & the Bad: Stephen Schwartz on Islam and Wahhabism.”   Kathryn Jean Lopez: What is Wahhabism?   Stephen Schwartz: Wahhabism is an extremist, puritanical, and violent movement that emerged, with the pretension of “reforming” Islam, in the central area of Arabia...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ The following is the Naqshbandi method of muraqabah as taught to us by our shuyukh .  As Imam ath-Thariqa’ , Shah Baha’ ad-Din Muhammad an-Naqshband ( q.s. ) said, “We are providers of access to communion; we are nothing else.”   First, perform ablution.  Then sit respectfully, facing the qiblah .  Recite the following adab once, in the order listed.   Repeat the shahadah three times.  The purpose of the shahadah is to affirm the Oneness of Allah ( s.w.t. ), His Sovereignty and His Power over all things.   أَشْهَدُ أَنْ لَا إِلَهَ إلاَّ الله وَأَشْهَدُ أَنَّ مُحَمَّدًاعَبْدُهُ وَرَسُولُهُ   Ashhdadu an laa ilaha illa Allah wa ashhadu anna Muhammadar ‘Abduhuu wa rasuuluh   I bear witness that there is no god,but Allah and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.   Repeat the istighfar 70 times.  This is to seek Allah’s ( s.w.t. ) Forgiveness not so much for ou...