2024 Dec 24

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Title:

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�ButAllaah 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 (Markazal-Da�wahwa�l-Irshaadli�l-Jaaliyaatghayr 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.

Majallatal-Shaqaa�iq, no. 30, p. 41

(courtesy of www.islam-qa.com)