Negara Malaysia di Ambang Era Baru

Semalam buat pertama kalinya aku "turun" padang untk melihat sendiri, dgn "mata kepalaku", "pesta kempen PRU13" yg selama ini aku hanya mengikuti di alam maya melalui "lensa iPadku" sahaja...

Tujuan asal nk ke Tmn Dagang mendengar ceramah Ketua Umum Pakatan Rakyat, tpi tanpa ku sedari "event" itu rupanya dh usai pd siangnya kerana aku baru sempat keluar rumah lebih kurang jam 10 mlm!!

Dlm perjalanan ke destinasi yg x lg wujud itu, aku telah melalui satu kelompok ceramah UmnoBN di sebuah Taman yg ku lihat agak lengang kerana tiada kesesakkan lalulintas yg berlaku, aku juga boleh agak kumpulan ini mmg "loaded" jika diukur dri kekuatan volume pembesar suara meke yg boleh didengar "sehingga 10 km!", termasuk aku yg di dlm kete pon boleh dengar dgn jelas "rayuan penceramah meke tok berkempen dri rumah ke rumah dek khuatir x sempat nk "reach out" kpd seramai mungkin pengundi dlm masa 2-3 hari saja lg masa berkempen akn tamat" - bila mendengarkan itu, dlm hati kecik ku pula terdetik, x cukupkah segala media massa serta radio/tv mu berkempen setiap hari, saat dan ketika??"....Dua kali aku pusing untk memastikan yg aku x tersalah kem dan berdepan dgn ancaman drpd kerusi kosong mereka!!

Setelah pasti itu bkn kelompok yg ku cari, aku beredar ke kawasan berhampiran di Bandar Baru Ampang di mana akhirnya aku berjaya menemui sekelompok penyokong Pakatan Rakyat yg sedang khusyuk mendengar celoteh dri bakal YB mereka...

Oleh kerana ini adalah pertama kalinya aku turun padang (sebagai pemerhati je), agak gusar jua hatiku tkot2 ada elemen2 ganas yg akn membuat onar, seperti yg ku saksikan di Youtube sebagainya sblom ini, almaklumlah sentimen pihak lawan mmg sejak kebelakangan ini agak sensitif dan mudah emo jika diusik dan meke pon mmg udah terkenal ada nilai2 "gangsterisma" yg sengaja di wujudkan sebagai salah satu strategi perang saraf untk menakut2kan rakyat bg mengekalkan kuasa meke - meke ini kesimpulannya lebih sanggup bergocoh dri berdebat untuk mempertahankan kejahilan anak2 buah meke dan Rakyat jelata secara amnya..

Aku telah mengambil tempat yg paling jauh sekali di belakang para hadirin sambil berdiri memerhati keadaan sekeliling. Mmg betul ada elemen pengacau, x berapa ketika ceramah sedang berlangsung, segerombolan Mat2 motor pihak lawan telah dtg beramai2 dgn membuat bising menggelilingi kawasan ceramah sambil membawa bendera Parti meke, dan kelakuan yg x bertamaddun ini telah disambut dgn pekikan "Reformasi, Reformasi" dri para hadirin yg turut teruja dgn kehadiran tetamu yg x diundang ini...sempat penceramah memberitahu bahawa Mat2 Rempit tersebut biasanya dibayar sehingga RM30 seorg untuk sengaja melakukan aksi stunt ganggu keadaan di situ...

Dari pengamatanku, untk pertama kalinya dpt aku saksikan "local crowd" yg hadir pd mlm itu adalah terdiri dri pelbagai lapisan masyarakat yg lebih kpd golongan pertengahan kebawah yg kebanyakkannya dri kaum Melayu dan China, dan mungkin juga ada segelintir kaum India yg hadir, tpi x dpt ku pastikan dlm suasana mlm sebegitu....

Semuanya dlm keadaan santai mendengar penceramah yg dtg silih berganti disebabkan ada beberapa ceramah yg berlaku serentak yg perlu dihadiri oleh penceramah yg sama. Dlm semua yg berceramah itu ada satu sahaja mesej yg mereka laungkan dgn sungguh jelas sekali iaitu, "Inikalilah masanya untk merubah dasar Negara kpd arah Kebajikan, Keadilan dan Kesamarataan".....yg dipersoalkan bknlah pihak mana yg boleh memberi "gula2" yg lebih manis, tpi pihak manakah yg sanggup merubah dasar Negara kita kpd dasar yg lebih adil dan saksama. Ini semua gara2 Rakyat udah muak dgn janji2 UmnoBN yg x pernah kesampaian walaupon sudah diberi peluang dan ruang untk mengotakan janji2 mereka selama lebih setengah abad memerintah sejak Negara mencapai Kemerdekaan...

Sedang aku asyik melayani janji2 Calon PR yg sedang berceramah, aku dikejutkan oleh teguran seorg nenek tua China yg tiba2 muncul disebelah ku, yg betul2 telah membuatku terkesima dgn aksi dan semangat kental yg telah ditunjukkan untuk memperjuangkan Keadilan untuk semua. Bagiku, kesungguhan dan kesedaran nenek tua ini adalah satu lambang era baru situasi di Negara kita buat masa kini. Semakin hari, semakin ramai Rakyat yg dh mula sedar betapa perlunya kita merubuhkan dinding pemisah di antara kaum, yg selama ini sengaja diada2kan oleh UmnoBN yg mahu mengekalkan kuasa meke, bersama2 menyokong usaha Pakatan Rakyat membentuk Kerajaan baru pd 5/5 nanti dan sekaligus membawa Negara ke AMBANG ERA BARU pasca Kemerdekaan, insyaAllah.

Dan aku amatlah terharu sekali apabila seorg nenek tua yg bkn Islam, turut mendoakan memohon restu dan bantuan Allah swt supaya UmnoBN ditombangkan pd Ahad ini bg membenteras Ketidakadilan yg telah dipaksakan ke atas beliau dan org2 yg se nasib dgnnya oleh pemerintah UmnoBN sejak kesekian lamanya....

Semangat yg telah ditunjukkan oleh nenek tua tersebut bknlah satu phenomena yg terpencil...ianya juga dpt ku rasakan pd kesemua yg hadir pd mlm itu (kecuali mungkin seorg dua yg hadir kerana tugasan memantau keadaan)..malahan sejak hari pencalonan baru2 ini pun telah dpt ku garap di hati sanubariku bahawa sentimen yg sama mmg ada di merata pelusuk Negara ibarat sebuah gunung berapi yg hanya menunggu pd bila2 masa sahaja untuk memuntahkan laharnya dek kerana tekanan yg sudah terlampau lama terpendam....

Inikalilah, pd hari Ahad 5/5/2013 ini, insyaAllah, kita semua akn mendapat peluang keemasan yg julung2 kalinya diberi oleh Allah swt, untk menyatakan isihati Rakyat yg sebenar dgn beramai2 keluar mengundi untk memastikan masa hadapan yg lebih cerah bg anak cucu dan generasi yg akn dtg kita semua....kita BUKAN sahaja memerlukan "simple majoriti" di Parlimen Putrajaya tetapi sekurang2nya 150 kerusi untk memerintah Negara dgn mantop...ayuh kita realisasikan impian ini Ahad ini...dgn berbekalkan semangat nenek tua!

Pilihlah dgn cermat dan berhati2, hanya ada satu pilihan di hadapan kita, tiada dua, tiada tiga.....tiada yg Bebas atau UmnoBN, yg ada hanyalah Pakatan Rakyat yg hendak menuju ke mercu pembangunan Negara yg mempunyai ROH Kebajikan, ROH Keadilan dan ROH kesamarataan untk Rakyat semua - Jom Ubah!!

Wasiat Nabi Khidir kpd Nabi Musa A.S.

Bissmillaahir Rahmaanir Rahiim.

~Wasiat Nabi Khidir Kepada Nabi Musa Alaihis Salam~.

Ketika Nabi Khidir hendak berpisah dengan Nabi Musa a.s, Musa berkata, "Berilah aku wasiat".

Jawab Nabi Khidir:

"Wahai Musa, jadilah kamu orang yang berguna bagi orang lain. Jangan sekali-kali kamu menjadi orang yang hanya menimbulkan kecemasan diantara mereka hingga kamu dibenci oleh mereka.

Jadilah kamu orang yang selalu menampakkan wajah ceria, dan janganlah sampai mengerutkan dahimu kepada mereka.

Janganlah kamu berkeras kepala, atau bekerja tanpa tujuan. Apabila kamu mencela seseorang hanya kekeliruannya sahaja, kemudian tangisilah dosa-dosamu, wahai Ibnu Imran.

Wahai Musa, pelajarilah ilmu-ilmu kebenaran agar kamu dapat mengerti apa yang belum kamu fahami, tetapi jangan sampai kamu jadikan ilmu-ilmu itu hanya sebagai bahan omongan.

Wahai Musa, sesungguhnya orang yang selalu memberi nasihat itu tidak pernah merasa jemu seperti kejemuan orang-orang yang mendengarkannya. Maka, janganlah kamu terlalu lama dalam menasihati kaummu. Dan ketahuilah bahawa hatimu itu ibarat sebuah bejana yang harus kamu rawat dan pelihara dari hal-hal yang memecahkannya.

Kurangilah usaha-usaha duniawimu, dan buanglah jauh-jauh dibelakangmu, kerana dunia ini bukanlah alam yang akan kamu tempati selamanya. Kamu diciptakan adalah untuk mencari tabungan pahala-pahala akhirat nanti. Bersikap ikhlaslah dan bersabar hati menghadapi kemaksiatan yang dilakukan oleh kaummu.

Hai Musa, tumpahkanlah seluruh pengetahuan ilmumu, kerana tempat yang kosong akan terisi oleh ilmu yang lain. Janganlah kamu banyak mengomongkan ilmumu itu kerana kamu akan dipisahkan oleh kaum ulama'. Maka bersikap sederhana sahajalah, kerana sederhana itu akan menghalangi aibmu dan akan membuka taufiq hidayah Allah untukmu.

Berantaslah kejahilan kamu dengan cara membuang sikap masa bodohmu yang selama ini menyelimuti dirimu, itulah sifat orang-orang arif lagi bijaksana, menjadi rahmat bagi semuanya. Apabila orang bodoh datang kepadamu dan mencacimu, rendamlah ia dengan penuh kedewasaan serta keteguhan hatimu.

Hai Putera Imran, tidakkah kamu sedari bahawa ilmu Allah yang kamu miliki hanya sedikit sahaja. Sesungguhnya menutupi kekurangan yang ada pada dirimu atau bersikap sewenang-wenangnya adalah menyeksa dirimu sendiri. Janganlah kamu buka pintu ilmu ini, jika kamu tidak tahu menguncinya, dan jangan kamu kunci pintu ilmu ini, jika kamu tidak tahu bagaimana membukanya.

Hai Putera Imran, barangsiapa suka menupuk-nupuk harta benda, dia sendiri bakal mati tertimbun dengannya, hingga dia merasakan akibat dari kerakusannya itu. Namun, semua hamba yang mensyukuri semua kurniaan Allah, serta memohon kesabaran atas ketentuan-ketentuan-Nya, dialah hamba yang zuhud dan patut diteladani. Bukankah orang seperti itu mampu mengalahkan nafsu syahwatnya dan dapat memerangi bujukan rayuan syaitan?. Dan dia pula orang yang mengetam buah dari ilmu yang selama ini dicarinya, dan segala amal kebajikan dan pahalanya akan dibalas diakhirat nanti. Sedangkan kehidupannya didunia akan tenteram ditengah-tengah masyarakat yang merasakan jasa-jasanya.

Hai Musa, pelajarilah ilmu-ilmu pengetahuan agar kamu dapat mengetahui segala yang kamu belum ketahui, misalnya masaalah yang tidak dapat diselesaikan atau hanya dijadikan bahan pembicaraan sahaja. Itulah penuntun jalanmu dan orang-orang akan disejukkan hatinya.

Hai Musa Putera Imran, jadikanlah pakaianmu bersumber dari dzikir dan fikir, serta perbanyakkan amal kebajikan. Suatu hari kamu tidak akan mampu mengelak dari kesalahan, maka pintalah keredhaan Allah dengan berbuat kebajikan, kerana pada saat-saat tertentu akalmu pasti akan melanggar larangan-Nya.

Sekarang telah kupenuhi kehendakmu untuk memberi pesan-pesan kepadamu. Omonganku ini tidak akan sia-sia bila kamu mahu menurutinya. Setelah itu Nabi Khidir meninggalkan Nabi Musa a.s yang duduk termenung dalam tangis kesedihan".

Kepada saudara-saudari seislam semua, semuga wasiat Nabi Khidir kepada Nabi Musa a.s ini menjadi renungan dan pedoman untuk kita dalam menghayati hidup membawa keberkatan Mencari Keredhaan Allah.

Mereka terkenal di Langit tidak di Bumi

Dari luarannya mereka ini adalah orang2 biasa yang tidak lebih dari anda dan saya. Kehidupan mereka seperti yang lain-lainnya tidak terlepas dari onak dan ranjau sebagai seorang insan di muka bumi Allah swt ini. Tetapi di sebalik semua itu, selepas ketiadaan mereka di muka bumi ini barulah kita sedar bahawa mereka rupanya bukanlah orang sebarangan. Mereka adalah merupakan sekumpulan insan istimewa yang di jadikan Allah swt sebagai murabbi dan pejuangNya yang sentiasa berusaha untuk mempertingkatkan syiar agama Allah swt di dalam suasana hiruk pikuk manusia yang kebanyakkannya sudah mulai lalai dan tidak menghiraukan lagi tanggungjawab keagamaan mereka....

Aku ingin merakamkan di sini catatatan pendek dua insan yang ku fikir adalah termasuk di dalam kategori "terkenal di langit" di sebabkan usaha-usaha mereka ketika hidup yang baru "terbongkar" sejurus sahaja meninggalkan kita buat selama-lamanya baru-baru ini...

Yang pertama adalah seorang aktivis agama dan murabbi kepada ramai para pejuang muda dan komuniti setempatnya....semasa hayatnya, beliau adalah salah seorang tenaga pengajar biasa di salah sebuah institusi pengajian tinggi...tiada yang istimewa nampaknya. Tetapi di luar bidang kerjayanya, beliau telah mengembeling segala tenaganya untuk mengumpul dan mendidik sebanyak mungkin generasi muda pejuang Islam di sekitar kawasan perumahan tempat dia tinggal...

Selepas kematiannya yang boleh dikatakan mengejut, barulah diketahui bahawa beliau telah meninggalkan vakum dan "kekosongan" yang sukar untuk diambil alih oleh yang lain...ramainya orang yang menziarahi jenazahnya adalah suatu indikasi yang jasa-jasa beliau adalah sangat disanjungi ramai dan hanya Allah swt sahaja yang mengetahui jasanya dan dapat membalasnya...insyaAllah kita berdoa semoga roh beliau dikumpulkan bersama-sama orang yang soleh-soleh di "langit" sana....

Yang kedua adalah sahabat sekolah ku yang ku rasa telah ku kenali selama hampir 30 tahun sejak dari sekolah menegah lagi...tetapi setelah berpisah sekian lama, tidak ku tahu bahwa beliau telah menjadi seorang pejuang agama yang gigih walaupun banyak menempuhi dugaan dari segi kesihatannya dan sebagainya...sempat ku menziarahinya lebih kurang 2 minggu sebelum beliau menghembuskan nafas terakhirnya baru-baru ini....

Tidak dapat ku bayangkan bahawa beliau adalah seorang yang gigih dan sangat beristiqomah dalam kerja-kerja kebajikannya dan dakwahnya sejak sekian lama...barulah ku sedar ketika di hari pengebumiannya tersangat ramailah manusia yang datang menghantarnya ke kuburan, mereka yang terdiri dari pelbagai pihak dan pertubuhan agama di samping para sahabat handainya yang mengirimkan ucapan takziah dari seluruh pelusuk dunia.....   

InsyaAllah, roh2 mereka dan orang-orang lain yang seperti mereka, yang tidak berapa di kenali di dunia akan di sambut dengan meriah oleh makhluk2 di langit oleh kerana amal soleh yang telah mereka kerjakan di dunia ini sepanjang hayat mereka...

Mereka2 itu telah pun pergi menghadap Pencipta mereka dengan meninggalkan kita untuk meneruskan perjuangan yang belum selesai....inilah peluang yang Allah swt telah sediakan untuk kita merebutnya bagi bekalan kita di akhirat sana....

Sesungguhnya mereka yang berjuang dan beramal soleh dalam menegakkan agama yang suci ini kalau tidak berjaya di dunia akan mendapati Syurga sudah sedia menunggu mereka di sana....

"Ya Allah, berilah kami hati yang sentiasa mengingati dan mencintai Mu, berilah kami kekuatan Iman untuk berjuang bersama2 menegakkan agama Mu yang suci ini"...aameen.

The Life of Chinua Achebe, Celebrated Nigerian Novelist

Me only heard of his name today when his death was reported in the news. After briefly reading his background, me know that this is one of the great man whose legacy should be looked into for all of us to learn something from him...

Below is an article on the great African author by Hillel Italie and Jon Gambrell of the Associated Press for us to share....

The opening sentence was as simple, declarative and revolutionary as a line out of Hemingway:

"Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages and even beyond," Chinua Achebe wrote in "Things Fall Apart." Africans, the Nigerian author announced more than 50 years ago, had their own history, their own celebrities and reputations. Centuries of being defined by the West were about to end, a transformation led by Achebe, who continued for decades to rewrite and reclaim the history of his native country.

Achebe, the internationally celebrated Nigerian author, statesman and dissident, died at age 82 in Boston on Thursday 03/21/2013 after a brief illness. He lived through and helped define traumatic change in Nigeria, from independence to dictatorship to the disastrous war between Nigeria and the breakaway country of Biafra in the late 1960s. He spent much of his adult life in the United States but never stopped calling for democracy in Nigeria or resisting literary honors from a government he refused to accept.

"What has consistently escaped most Nigerians in this entire travesty is the fact that mediocrity destroys the very fabric of a country as surely as a war -- ushering in all sorts of banality, ineptitude, corruption and debauchery," wrote Achebe, whose death was confirmed by Brown University, where he taught.

His eminence worldwide was rivaled only by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Toni Morrison and a handful of others. Achebe was a moral and literary model for countless Africans and a profound influence on such American-based writers as Ha Jin, Junot Diaz and Morrison, who once called Achebe's work an "education" for her and "liberating in a way nothing had been before."

His public life began in his mid-20s, when Nigeria was still under British rule. He was a resident of London when he completed his handwritten manuscript for "Things Fall Apart," a short novel about a Nigerian tribesman's downfall at the hands of British colonialists.

Turned down by several publishers, the book was finally accepted by Heinemann and released in 1958 with a first printing of 2,000. Its initial review in The New York Times ran less than 500 words, but the novel soon became among the most important books of the 20th century, a universally acknowledged starting point for postcolonial, indigenous African fiction, the prophetic union of British letters and African oral culture. "

"It would be impossible to say how 'Things Fall Apart' influenced African writing," the African scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah observed. "It would be like asking how Shakespeare influenced English writers or Pushkin influenced Russians. Achebe didn't only play the game, he invented it."

"Things Fall Apart" has sold more than 8 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 50 languages. Achebe also was a forceful critic of Western literature about Africa, especially Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness," standard reading for millions, but in Achebe's opinion, a defining example of how even a great Western mind could reduce a foreign civilization to barbarism.

"Now, I grew up among very eloquent elders. In the village, or even in the church, which my father made sure we attended, there were eloquent speakers. So if you reduce that eloquence which I encountered to eight words ... it's going to be very different," Achebe, who attacked the novel in a landmark lecture and essay "An Image of Africa," told The Associated Press in 2008. "You know that it's going to be a battle to turn it around, to say to people, 'That's not the way my people respond in this situation, by unintelligible grunts, and so on; they would speak.' And it is that speech that I knew I wanted to be written down."

His first novel was intended as a trilogy and the author continued its story in "No Longer At Ease" and "Arrow of God." He also wrote short stories, poems, children's stories and a political satire, "The Anthills of Savannah," a 1987 release that was the last full-length fiction to come out in his lifetime. Achebe, who used a wheelchair in his later years, would cite his physical problems and displacement from home as stifling to his imaginative powers.

Achebe never did win the Nobel Prize, which many believed he deserved, but in 2007 he did receive the Man Booker International Prize, a $120,000 honor for lifetime achievement. Achebe, paralyzed from the waist down since a 1990 auto accident, lived for years in a cottage built for him on the campus of Bard College, a leading liberal arts school north of New York City where he was a faculty member. He joined Brown in 2009 as a professor of languages and literature.

Achebe, a native of Ogidi, Nigeria, regarded his life as a bartering between conflicting cultures. He spoke of the "two types of music" running through his mind, Ibo legends and the prose of Dickens. He was also exposed to different faiths. His father worked in a local missionary and was among the first in their village to convert to Christianity. 

In Achebe's memoir "There Was a Country," he wrote that his "whole artistic career was probably sparked by this tension between the Christian religion" of his parents and the "retreating, older religion" of his ancestors. He would observe the conflicts between his father and great uncle and ponder "the essence, the meaning, the worldview of both religions."

For much of his life, he had a sense that he was a person of special gifts who was part of a historic generation. Achebe was so avid a reader as a young man that his nickname was "Dictionary." At Government College Umuahia, he read Shakespeare, Dickens, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jonathan Swift among others. 

He placed his name alongside an extraordinary range of alumni - government and artistic leaders from Jaja Wachukwa, a future ambassador to the United Nations; to future Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka; Achebe's future wife (and mother of their four children) Christine Okoli; and the poet Christopher Okigbo, a close friend of Achebe's who was killed during the Biafra war.

After graduating from the University College of Ibadan, in 1953, Achebe was a radio producer at the Nigerian Broadcasting Corp., then moved to London and worked at the British Broadcasting Corp. He was writing stories in college and called "Things Fall Apart" an act of "atonement" for what he says was the abandonment of traditional culture. The book's title was taken from poet William Butler Yeats' "The Second Coming," which includes the widely quoted line, "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold."

His novel was nearly lost before ever seen by the public. When Achebe finished his manuscript, he sent it to a London typing service, which misplaced the package and left it lying in an office for months. The proposed book was received coolly by London publishers, who doubted the appeal of fiction from Africa. Finally, an educational adviser at Heinemann who had recently traveled to west Africa had a look and declared: "This is the best novel I have read since the war."

In mockery of all the Western books about Africa, Achebe ended "Things Fall Apart" with a colonial official observing Okonkwo's fate and imagining the book he will write: "The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger." Achebe's novel was the opening of a long argument on his country's behalf.

"Literature is always badly served when an author's artistic insight yields to stereotype and malice," Achebe said during a 1998 lecture at Harvard University that cited Joyce Cary's "Mister Johnson" as a special offender. "And it becomes doubly offensive when such a work is arrogantly proffered to you as your story. Some people may wonder if, perhaps, we were not too touchy, if we were not oversensitive. We really were not."

Achebe could be just as critical of his own country. The novels "A Man of the People" and "No Longer at Ease" were stories of corruption and collapse that anticipated the Nigerian civil war of 1967-70 and the years of mismanagement that followed. He not only supported Biafra's independence, but was a government envoy and a member of a committee that was to write up the new and short-lived country's constitution. He would flee from Nigeria and return many times and twice refused the country's second-highest award, the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic, over the lawlessness in his home state of Anambra.

In 2011, Nigeria's presidency said Achebe's refusal "clearly flies in the face of the reality of Nigeria's current political situation." Achebe responded that "A small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places, seems determined to turn my homeland into a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom."

"I had a strong belief that we would outgrow our shortcomings under leaders committed to uniting our diverse peoples," Achebe warned.

Besides his own writing, Achebe served for years as editor of Heinemann's "African Writer Series," which published works by Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Biko and others. He also edited numerous anthologies of African stories, poems and essays. In "There Was a Country," he considered the role of the modern African writer.

"What I can say is that it was clear to many of us that an indigenous African literary renaissance was overdue," he wrote. "A major objective was to challenge stereotypes, myths, and the image of ourselves and our continent, and to recast them through stories - prose, poetry, essays, and books for our children. That was my overall goal."

Khadijah "Sue" Watson

An interesting article me found over the internet which is worth sharing for us to ponder how difficult it is for those outside of Islam to fing the "light of Iman" as compared to us who are already in it but could not "see" how precious the "light of Iman" really is...happy reading and hope there is lesson to be learned for us all here...
 

“What happened to you?” This was usually the first reaction I encountered when my
former classmates, friends and co-pastors saw me after having embraced Islam. I
suppose I couldn’t blame them, I was a highly unlikely the person to change
religions. Formerly, I was a professor, pastor, church planter and missionary. If
anyone was a radical fundamentalist it was I.

I had just graduated with my Master’s Degree of Divinity from an elite seminary five
months before. It was after that time I met a lady who had worked in Saudi Arabia
and had embraced Islam. Of course I asked her about the treatment of women in Islam.
I was shocked at her answer, it wasn’t what I expected so I proceeded to ask other
questions relating to Allah and Muhammad (pbuh). She informed me that she would take
me to the Islamic Center where they would be better able to answer my questions.

Being prayed up, meaning-asking Jesus for protection against demon spirits seeing
that what we had been taught about Islam is that it is Demonic and Satanic religion.
Having taught Evangelism I was quite shocked at their approach, it wa s direct and
straightforward. No intimidation, no harassment, no psychological manipulation, no
subliminal influence! None of this, “let’s have a Qur’aanic study in your house”,
like a counter part of the Bible study. I couldn’t believe it! They gave me some
books and told me if I had some questions they were available to answer them in the
office. That night I read all of the books they gave. It was the first time I had
ever read a book about Islam written by a Muslim, we had studied and read books
about Islam only written by Christians. The next day I spent three hours at the
office asking questions. This went on everyday for a week, by which time I had read
twelve books and knew why Muslims are the hardest people in the world to convert to
Christianity. Why? Because there is nothing to offer them!! (In Islam) There is a
relationship with Allah, forgiveness of sins, salvation and promise of Eternal Life.

Naturally, my first question centered on the deity of Allah. Who is this Allah that
the Muslims worship? We had been taught as Christians that this is another god, a
false god. When in fact He is the Omniscient-All Knowing, Omnipotent-All Powerful,
and Omnipresent-All Present God. The One and Only without co-partners or co-equal.
It is interesting to note that there were bishops during the first three hundred
years of the Church that were teaching as the Muslim beli eves that Jesus (pbuh) was
a prophet and teacher!! It was only after the conversion of Emperor Constantine that
he was the one to call and introduce the doctrine of the Trinity. He a convert to
Christianity who knew nothing of this religion introduced a paganistic concept that
goes back to Babylonian times. Because the space does not permit me to go into
detail about the subject insha’Allah, another time. Only I must point out that the
word TRINITY is not found in the Bible in any of its many translation nor is it
found in the original Greek or Hebrew languages!

My other important question centered on Muhammad (pbuh). Who is this Muhammad? I
found out that Muslims do not pray to him like the Christians pray to Jesus. He is
not an intermediary and in fact it is forbidden to pray to him. We ask blessing upon
him at the end of our prayer but likewise we ask blessings on Abraham. He is a
Prophet and a Messenger, the final and last Prophet. In fact, until now, one
thousand four hundred and eighteen years (1,418) later there has been no prophet
after him. His message is for All Mankind as opposed to the message of Jesus or
Moses (peace be upon them both) which was sent to the Jews. “Hear O Israel” But the
message is the same message of Allah. “The Lord Your God is One God and you shall
have no other gods before Me.”(Mark 12:29).

Because prayer was a very important part of my Christian life I was both interested
and curious to know what the Muslims were praying. As Christians we were as ignorant
on this aspect of Muslim belief as on the other aspects. We thought and were taught,
that the Muslims were bowing down to the Ka’bah (in Mecca), that that was there god
and center point of this false deity. Again, I was shocked to learn that the manner
of prayer is prescribed by God, Himself. The words of the prayer are one of praise
and exaltation. The approach to prayer (ablution or washing) in cleanliness is under
the direction of Allah. He is a Holy God and it is not for us to approach Him in an
arbitrary manner but only reasonable that He should tell us how we should approach
Him.

At the end of that week after having spent eight (8) years of formal theological
studies I knew cognitively (head knowledge) that Islam was true. But I did not
embrace Islam at that time because I did not believe it in my heart. I continued to
pray, to read the Bible, to attend lectures at the Islamic Center. I was in earnest
asking and seeking God’s direction. It is not easy to change your religion. I did
not want to loose my salvation if there was salvation to loose. I continued to be
shocked and amazed at what I was learning because it was not what I was taught that
Islam believed. In my Master’s level, the professor I had was respected as an
authority on Islam yet his teaching and that of Christianity in general is full of
Misunderstanding. He and many Christians like him are sincere but they are sincerely
wrong.

Two months later after having once again prayed seeking God’s direction, I felt
something drop into my being! I sat up, and it was the first time I was to use the
name of Allah, and I said, “Allah, I believe you are the One and Only True God.”
There was peace that descended upon me and from that day four years ago until now I
have never regretted embracing Islam. This decision did not come without trial. I
was fired from my job as I was teaching in two Bible Colleges at that time,
ostracized by my former classmates, professors and co-pastors, disowned by my
husband’s family, misunderstood by my adult children and made a suspicion by my own
government. Without the faith that enables man to stand up to Satanic forces I would
not ha ve been able to withstand all of this. I am ever so grateful to Allah that I
am a Muslim and may I live and die a Muslim.

“Truly, my prayer, my service of sacrifice, my life and my death are all for God the
Cherisher of the Worlds. No partner has He, this I am commanded. And I am the first
of those who bow to Allah in Islam.” 
(Holy Qur’aan 6:162-163) 

Sister Khadijah Watson