EXPERIENCE OF FAITH

Mahomed Khan

Asallaamu Alaykum.

I'm sure you might remember me, although we have never met before. My name is Dawood, from Port Elizabeth. I went to that speech that we had here by Sheikh Yusuf from America. You have been in contact with me before and said that I must email you and share my story. That was quite a while ago, I hope you do remember.

I come from a Christian background, but I have always had a hard time believing in the Trinity. It has never made sense to me, so I stopped going to church when i was 17 (I am now 26). The Bible was also something I could not really understand. It seemed to me that there was something not right with the Bible, but I could not explain what it is was.

The Sheikh's talk that he gave was called 'What the Bible did not tell you'. That title immediately caught my attention and i thought to myself that i will go and take a listen. When I arrived there I was not sure what i was getting myself into because there were a lot of Muslims walking into the building. I was about to leave when I saw someone that I knew from school, so the two of us went in together. His speech was quite good, informing us about the flaws in the Bible, but afterwards i left and did not think much about it.

Little did I know that sitting behind me was a customer that came into my place of work the week before. I did not see him, but he saw me. The next day he came back and he ordered some more goods, and he asked me what i did the night before. Not thinking about it really, I just said that I stayed at home and watched tv. He said that he thought he saw me at the speech, then I told him that I was there. He told me that he had some books in his car if I would be interested in reading them. He gave me about ten books which I took home with me. (He actually came in specifically to give me the books, I think he did not need any goods at the time).

I started reading , and it was like the flood gates opened. Everything I read just made perfect sense to me. It absolutely answered all my questions that I had about Christianity in the most simplest way possible. I definitely thought that this is something that I need to get more information on. When I was finished with the books I phone him up and got some more. His name is Doctor Huq, I believe you have met him before. He would invite me to his house for supper and he would talk about Islam and I would absorb it like a sponge. In my heart I knew that what I was reading was right, but it just seemed too much of a big task to embrace Islam completely. I told myself I have to be 100% sure first, its not something that you can go back on.

After about a year of reading I went to the Doc's house with the intention of converting. I went with him to the Masjid and met the Mufti there and embraced Islam. That was on the 3rd of July last year.

I stay in an area where there are no mosques around at all. But the Mufti gave me the number of someone that stayed closed to me where they met everyday at a 'Jamat Gana'. After 3 days I got the courage to phone him and he gave me directions to where the place was.

I was incredibly nervous to go and meet him. but i had started this journey and could not end it just there, so I went. What and amazing person. Abdulazeez is his name. I'm telling you, Allah works in wonderful ways. Abdulazeez is such a wonderful person, with an incredibly big heart. We were there before Eisha salat so we spoke for a bit before everybody else came along. He really did take my under his wing in the beginning. He bought me a 'kurta' and islamic cd's. He would invite me to his house for supper. He would fetch me from my work on Friday's and we would go to Jummah Salat. He organised with this other man, Boeta Taypae, to teach me the basics of wudu, istinja etc.

Boeta Taypae is another amazing person that I owe so much too. He taught me a lot. I still stay with my parents so the food at my house is not halaal, so during Ramadaan, he and his wife invited me to break my fast with them every night. All praise is due to Allah for giving me a very good start to my new life as a Muslim. Allah has blessed me in so many ways.

After Ramadaan, I think the stress of fasting and work stress (it was our busy period) took its toll on me, and my deen slipped quite a bit. It lasted until the beginning of this year when i got back on track and carried on from where I left off. It's like that though, it's an up and down journey. Sometimes I go through a patch where I lose interest a bit, still being a muslim, but losing the passion in it. And other times I just can't seem to learn enough, because I just want to know everything.

Our Muslim community on our side of town does not consist of a lot of people. There is seldom more then 10 people for Fajr or Eisha salat, but it is nice, because I have gotten to know those people very well and they have welcomed me with open arms. As difficult as it was for me in the beginning, it was the same for them having a new face around.

There is another person in particular who has helped me a lot, especially in this later days. His name is Abdullatief. The two of us are considering going to Yemen next year, Inshallah, to go and study there. There is a place called 'Dhammaj', where you can study Quran and Hadith. They cover your food and accommodation, you just have to get there. A person has to be recommended to go, so we are trying to organise with a man in Cape Town to recommend us to go. The amount of knowledge i could can gain in a year there will take me a lifetime to learn here. But Inshalla, if it is meant to be it will all work out.

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