Islam for Non-Muslims
- RELIGIOUS FAITHS VS IRRELIGIOUS IDEAS
- ISLAM AS A RELIGION
- ISLAM AS A WAY OF LIFE
Islam as a Magnet for the Non-Muslims
16: ISLAM AS A MAGANATE FOR THE NON-MUSLIMS
Introduction: Islam is one of the most influential and the fastest growing religions of the world. As of early 21st century, it enjoys popularity with about 1.8 billion adherents, second only to Christianity. However, judged by the quality and quantity of its provisions, the model character of its Prophet and the ideal provisions of the Quran—Islam holds a unique position among all the religions. There is hardly any religion in today's world that can compare favorably with Islam--either through overall assessment or item by item analysis of its individual provisions.
The Strengths of Islam: The Prophet: Among the prophets, the Prophet Mohammad (pbuh) was unique for attaining excellence and perfection in almost every aspect of human qualities. Surprising to many historians, within a short life span of 63 years, he worked miracles by bringing a considerable part of humanity within the fold of Islam by means of his successful prophetic roles. In recognition of this, an independent writer Mr. Michael Hart rightly identified the Prophet of Islam as the “world’s most influential person” in the history of mankind (details follow).
The Quran: Similarly the holy book Quran is a class by itself for maintaining its original purity to this day and earning words of praise from even many non-Muslim scholars, for its moral and humanitarian bias and guiding potentials. Islam sets itself apart by extending its jurisdiction as a religion (solely based on beliefs and rituals) to a complete way of life (covering diverse aspects of humanity). Islam is not only a final religion forever, but it also claims to be a religion for everyone, while showing a high degree of tolerance towards other religions. In this manner, Islam has clear-cut supremacy over other religions and its features and qualities bear eternal appeals for all those who care about religion: either Muslims or non-Muslims.
(I)) Muslim Contentment with Islam: The Muslims in general find a great pleasure in Islam for its ability to meet their spiritual and religious aspirations in full. They are also proud of their religion that happens to be the best of its kind and are thankful to God for blessing them with birth in Muslim family or guiding their conversion into Islam. They have naturally no reason to switch to any other religions which are arguably not superior to Islam. Their switch to other religions for monetary or other incentives is also open to the following setbacks.
(i) Money can't buy the faith of devoted and solvent Muslims. The non-Muslim missionaries backed by their wealthier possessions often spend lavishly but find it very hard if not totally impossible to convert the Muslims. Such missionaries therefore target the Muslims who are vulnerable for their poverty and shaky faith. This group accidentally or occasionally may become their victims under attractions of profitable material benefits.
(ii) Even such apparent success with conversion of the needy and shaky Muslims may eventually prove to be unreal. Because such conversions often do not mean a change of their heart and mind but represent their trick to gain benefits from the missionary group, only to turn back to Islam when sources of such benefits are dried up.
(2) Non-Muslim Appreciation of Islam: Those who properly learn about Islam without any prejudice and are dictated by conscience are most likely to develop a favorable notion about Islam. Not always do they keep such ideas within the confines of their mind as you will often hear from them making appreciable remarks about Islam, its Prophet or the Quran. Now we present below some samples of such quotations from eminent non-Muslim scholars or dignitaries:
(i) Pope John Paul II: “the religiosity of Muslims deserves respect. It is impossible not to admire, for example, their fidelity to prayer”. They “...without caring about time or place, fall to their knees and immerse themselves in prayer remains a model for those who invoke the true God” (John Paul II, Pope from 1978-2005).
(Note: The above mentioned admission from the number one person of the number one religion Catholicism (population wise) not only confirms about the excellence of prayer system in Islam but also the sincere devotion with which the average Muslims pray. More importantly, it ultimately reflects on the religion Islam that they follow.)
(ii) Michael Hart: "My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels."
(Note: In his book "The 100"-A ranking of the most influential persons in history", independent author Mr. Hart ranked the Prophet Mohammad as the number 1 among the 100 dignitaries, followed by Newton and Jesus respectively as number 2 and 3.
(iii) Maurice Bucaille (French Scientist before Conversion): “Whereas monumental errors are to be found in the Bible, I could not find a single error in the Quran.” (p. 120).
“The Quran does not contain a single statement that is open to criticism from modern science” (205).
“If a man was the author of the Quran, how could he have written facts in the seventh century A.D. that today are shown to be in keeping with modern scientific knowledge?” (p. 120).
(iv) US President Eisenhower: “Civilization owes to the Islamic world some of its most important tools and achievements” (1957 Quote).
(v) P. K. Hitti (Princeton Professor): “Though the youngest of the epoch-making books, the Koran is the most widely read book ever written” (P. 126)
“Of all world religions, Islam seems to have attained the largest measure of success in demolishing the barriers of race, color and nationality” (P. 136).
(vi) Montgomery Watt (British Historian): “The original doctrine of a parallelism between Islam and older monotheistic religions was largely replaced in course of time by a doctrine of universalism, that is, Islam was superior to all other religions and suitable for all men”.
(vii) George Bernard Shaw (British Nobel Winner Novelist): “I have always held the religion of Muhammad (Islam) in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. Islam is the best religion and Muslims are the worst followers”.
(viii) Bertrand Russell (Nobel Laureate British Philosopher): “From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished” (History of Western Philosophy, 1948)
(ix) Encyclopedia Britannica: “On the moral side, Islam laid a firm moral basis for a total purposeful community”.
(x) Jawaharlal Nehru (India’s First Prime Minister): He observed the sharp “contrast between the tolerance of the Arab Muslims and the intolerance of the Christians in Europe” (“Glimpses of World History”)
(xi) Mahatma Gandhi: “From my reading I received the impression that the Prophet (Muhammad) was a seeker of Truth” (Harijan Bandhu , July 1934 edition).
The above references are some samples of their kind and a complete listing of those who expressed positive views on various aspects of Islam is almost impossible.
In fact, it will not probably require any painstaking research to prove that no religion other than Islam enjoys so much of appreciative comments from independent sources.
(3) Conversion to Islam:
The beauties of Islam give the Muslims genuine reasons to stick to their religion, without making a switch-over. In the same breath, it is like a powerful magnet for the non-Muslims who are likely to embrace it if favored by some conditions.
Conditions: These conditions include among others: (i) being a believer in the Creator and looking for an ideal religion to believe in; (ii) learning thoroughly about Islam by reading the translated Quran, authentic Hadith and other reliable Islamic books; (iii) getting any confusions about Islam clarified through consultation with Muslims scholars and/or studying reliable books; (iv) pondering about the provisions of Islam with a unprejudiced mind and open heart; (v) being fearless about any possible repression from the supporters of their old religion, in case of conversion and so on.
If the above conditions become favorable, it is quite possible that Islam may go deep into the heart of the fair-minded non-Muslims and they may not remain confined to mere singing praises about Islam. The earthquake of emotions about Islam within their heart may give way to volcanic eruptions in the form of their acceptance of Islam by braving all problems and social obstacles anticipated with such a life-changing decision. Islam, being an ideal and progressive religion, is thus in a better position to attract potential converts. For this purpose, not too much dawah efforts or monetary incentives may be needed, unlike the case of selling off other religions.
Particularly Islam attains remarkable success in winning over souls of ranking and educated non-Muslims who adopt it after conscious verification and comparative study of the religions. As a result, the converts to Islam include a large percentage of world-class celebrities like Mohammad Ali Clay (legendary boxing champion from USA), Another US boxing champion Mike Tyson, Kareem Abdul Jabber (US basketball celebrity), Yusuf Islam (British rock star Cat Stevens), African-American leader Malcom X, First African-American US Congressman Keith Ellison, Mohammad Asad (Austrian Jewish scholar Leopold Weiss), Martin Lings (British writer), French scientist Maurice Bucaille, Marmaduke Pickthall (British Anglican novelist & Quran translator), Maryam Jameelah (American born author), Hamza Yusuf Hanson (prominent Muslim scholar), Yusuf Estes (founder of Guide US TV), Abdul Rahim Green (British convert), Muhammad Hussain Inoki (Japanese wrestler), Dr. Ingrid Mattson (Ex-President of Islamic Society of North America), American writer/scholar Dr. Jerald Dirks (convert from United Methodist Church), to name a few from nearly inexhaustible list of its kind.
By contrast, there is hardly any incidence of conversion to other religions from Muslims of such international fame. By dint of its extraordinary powers of attraction, Islam continues to be embraced by the non-Muslims in great waves since its very dawn. This fact is caught up in the characterization of Islam as “the fastest growing religion” by Pope John Paul II.
Conclusion: It appears from the above that the beauties of Islam act as a powerful appeal for those who care about religion among the ever-increasing number of world population.