How Emily became Muslim
I
said, Emily has become Muslim?!
She
said, Yes, she became Muslim.
This
news came as a surprise, and I asked myself, how did this woman become Muslim?
I
had never noticed anything in the expression of this Filipina woman to indicate
that she wanted to hear anything about Islam� But Allaah says (interpretation
of the meaning):
�Verily,
you (O Muhammad) guide not whom you like, but Allaah guides whom He wills�
[al-Qasas 28:56]
And
Allaah had guided this Christian woman to Islam. The lady of the house for whom
Emily worked told me the story of her Islam. Her journey towards Islam had begun
when she had said to her mistress, I want to learn about Islam.
This
surprised the lady of the house, but she told her a few things about Islam in an
attempt to convey a little of what she knew about her religion. Then she got in
touch with the Centre of Daw�ah and Guidance for Non-Muslims (Markaz
al-Da�wah wa�l-Irshaad li�l-Jaaliyaat ghayr al-Muslimah) in
order to get hold of some books about Islam written in the Filipino language
(Tagalog).
What
attracted my attention to this story is the fact that this newly-Muslim woman
sees things in our religion that many others do not see.
When
I asked her why she had embraced our religion, she answered as follows:
I
used to feel very peaceful deep in my heart, even though I was in a strange
society far away from my homeland. I received kind treatment from my mistress
and she was concerned about me and my rights. She cared about my safety and
would not let me go out alone on my weekly day off. She said, If your husband
were here, I would let you go out with him on your day off. At the beginning, I
used to accuse the Muslims of being oppressive, but I soon realized that she
meant well and wanted to keep me away from immoral routes. If this was the case
with minor issues of your religion, then what about the major issues?
Whilst
thinking about the story of this Filipina worker, whose appearance was even more
beautiful than before now that she was wearing the proper Islamic hijaab,
another question came to my mind: what motivates a woman to become Muslim?
Despite
the fact that the people in the family for whom she worked were not particularly
keen to call her to Islam and they did not follow a purely Islamic lifestyle,
there still existed that common sense (fitrah � natural human inclination) which prevails over
most of our households � that fitrah
accompanied by kind treatment and good manners to which Allaah guides us in most
of our dealings, even though some neglect much of it; that common sense which we
must pay attention to. But it is this fitrah
which always attracts them to the true religion.
My message here is daw�ah and raising awareness, the da�wah which starts in our homes with simple efforts. Our religion of Islam is a great religion which includes profound principles and concepts and it can save mankind from its woes; we must not neglect these principles.
If this woman could become Muslim simply from seeing or hearing a few simple things in our lifestyle, how would it be if we were really adhering to our religion properly? Wouldn�t that have a greater and more positive effect on the non-Muslim foreign workers around us? It would definitely have a great impact on improving the state of our Islamic society and the entire Muslim Ummah.
Majallat
al-Shaqaa�iq,
no. 30, p. 41