A friend from Taiwan dropped by Singapore a couple of days ago.
12 years ago, through a primary school gathering with my mates, I got to know this friend. He tagged along with his friend, who was my primary school mate. While exchanging telephone numbers amongst my mates, he wrote down his number happily and managed to copy mine down. From then, that’s how we became friends. We almost went into a relationship but it couldn’t work because he was in States and I was here. Now that’s history.
Nevertheless, we still continued to keep in touch with each other.
So apparently, he didn’t quite noticed that I’ve changed when he came here for a visit about 4 years ago. I became a muslim and I wasn’t wearing clothes that would flaunt my figure publicly. It was a short visit and I didn’t had the chance to tell him about my conversion.
The truth had spoken on its own when I invited my primary school mates to my wedding reception. And a couple of months later, he asked me on MSN if I was married. That was when I told him about my conversion. And because, Thank God, he was not a local, he did not utter that golden question; “ So your husband is a Malay?”
We talked a bit about our past but both of us had moved on. He had a girlfriend then.
1 year plus later, he called me and told me that he is coming back for a few days and would like to meet up. Omigosh, it has been a long time since we met. I was hesitant yet looking forward to seeing him. He had never seen my ‘new look’ and I wasn’t sure if he would scream at me.
So on the day when we were supposed to meet for lunch, I texted him in the morning and told him to prepare himself for a new change. Then he asked: 难到你变得更火辣，还是把自己包得像个粽子吧。我便回答：不是啦。就是比较回教的装扮啦。
I could sensed that there would be understanding from him. I took half day and went straight to Kinokuniya to meet him. He was in the queue when I arrived in Kino and immediately he spotted me and waved me to meet him in the queue. I was shocked. He told me that he was more or less prepared since I pre-empt him about my new ‘dressing’. We started talking excitedly in Mandarin, and got everyone staring.
After that, we went Delifrance for lunch. He wasn’t picky and he understood that my diet was different from the others. The moment we sat down, he pestered me for more details into the reasons why I converted. Slowly I explained to him what happened and how I got into Islam.
He began asking me lots of question about Islam. I loved questions. And I would be most willing to share. Somehow, he had gone to churches before and had some knowledge of similarities between Christianity and Islam. I told him that Prophet Jesus (Isa a.s) prayed to God alone, and told his people to submit to One God.
He (Jesus) answered: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’ ” (Mathew:15:24)
But when he was brought up to God and someone (close to his resemblance) replaced Jesus on the crufix, his message was diverted away from the straight path. Over the years, Christianity evolved from Paul. Why:
Jesus a.s. came for the Jews but Paul was interested to popularize this teaching amongst the Hellenized world (Romans and Greek). Scholars considered him to be a Hellenized Jew (i.e. a Jew strongly influenced by Greek culture and ways of life). He was not amongst the original disciples of Jesus. He was originally a persecutor but then later converted, claiming to have seen a ‘vision’.
The word “messiah” was later translated into Greek which is “Kristos” (which has the meaning of ‘the anointed’). And from this Greek word it was kept in use, even in English with the Latinized spelling “Christ”. From this we get the word “Christians”.
We are told that many years after Jesus time (circa 100 CE), at a place called Antioch, the remnant followers of Jesus, was ridiculed, persecuted and mocked by their enemies. These Greek people started to refer them (followers of the prophet Jesus a.s. at that time) as “these are Christians”, implying wrongly that they “worshipped Jesus” – whereas they were of the Judaic tradition that believed in monotheism (One God).
My friend didn’t deny the existence of one God. He knew that scientists can only prove THAT much of stuff, but most of it aren’t explainable by SCIENCE. But the issue he brought up was very tricky and he really got me thinking deep into my religion and my faith that intertwined together.
“how did you know its HIM up there? And not someone else?”
“how can you be so sure that the Quran is still true and accurate even after 1400years ago?”
“So you can only rely on your beliefs to know that God exists? Well I don’t need to see God, but I just need some proofs about the certainty of God.”
I’ve explained all to him but he just kept going on and on. Back and forth. Back and forth. Rephrasing and rephrasing.
I couldn’t convince him. Neither could I give him good answers. And I was upset. I have failed in my da’wah. I realized that I do not possess the qualities to be a muslim who can da’wah.
Is it because of my weak faith? Or my lack of knowledge and intelligence?
After sending him off, I began to question myself. Deep deep down my heart. If I believed in God, why couldn’t I be able to give good solid answers? If my Tauhid was strong, why couldn’t I convince him?
Instead of entertaining the Shaytan and his whisperings, I read all the books that I could find in the house. I went through all the materials in Chinese about tauhid (monotheism) on the internet. And I posted him a note about believing in God in Facebook. I hope he reads. And I fervently pray to Allah:
“Oh Allah! Please bestow the right guidance upon my friend. Amin.”
Nevertheless, we still continued to keep in touch with each other.
So apparently, he didn’t quite noticed that I’ve changed when he came here for a visit about 4 years ago. I became a muslim and I wasn’t wearing clothes that would flaunt my figure publicly. It was a short visit and I didn’t had the chance to tell him about my conversion.
The truth had spoken on its own when I invited my primary school mates to my wedding reception. And a couple of months later, he asked me on MSN if I was married. That was when I told him about my conversion. And because, Thank God, he was not a local, he did not utter that golden question; “ So your husband is a Malay?”
We talked a bit about our past but both of us had moved on. He had a girlfriend then.
1 year plus later, he called me and told me that he is coming back for a few days and would like to meet up. Omigosh, it has been a long time since we met. I was hesitant yet looking forward to seeing him. He had never seen my ‘new look’ and I wasn’t sure if he would scream at me.
So on the day when we were supposed to meet for lunch, I texted him in the morning and told him to prepare himself for a new change. Then he asked: 难到你变得更火辣，还是把自己包得像个粽子吧。我便回答：不是啦。就是比较回教的装扮啦。
I could sensed that there would be understanding from him. I took half day and went straight to Kinokuniya to meet him. He was in the queue when I arrived in Kino and immediately he spotted me and waved me to meet him in the queue. I was shocked. He told me that he was more or less prepared since I pre-empt him about my new ‘dressing’. We started talking excitedly in Mandarin, and got everyone staring.
After that, we went Delifrance for lunch. He wasn’t picky and he understood that my diet was different from the others. The moment we sat down, he pestered me for more details into the reasons why I converted. Slowly I explained to him what happened and how I got into Islam.
He began asking me lots of question about Islam. I loved questions. And I would be most willing to share. Somehow, he had gone to churches before and had some knowledge of similarities between Christianity and Islam. I told him that Prophet Jesus (Isa a.s) prayed to God alone, and told his people to submit to One God.
He (Jesus) answered: ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel’ ” (Mathew:15:24)
But when he was brought up to God and someone (close to his resemblance) replaced Jesus on the crufix, his message was diverted away from the straight path. Over the years, Christianity evolved from Paul. Why:
Jesus a.s. came for the Jews but Paul was interested to popularize this teaching amongst the Hellenized world (Romans and Greek). Scholars considered him to be a Hellenized Jew (i.e. a Jew strongly influenced by Greek culture and ways of life). He was not amongst the original disciples of Jesus. He was originally a persecutor but then later converted, claiming to have seen a ‘vision’.
The word “messiah” was later translated into Greek which is “Kristos” (which has the meaning of ‘the anointed’). And from this Greek word it was kept in use, even in English with the Latinized spelling “Christ”. From this we get the word “Christians”.
We are told that many years after Jesus time (circa 100 CE), at a place called Antioch, the remnant followers of Jesus, was ridiculed, persecuted and mocked by their enemies. These Greek people started to refer them (followers of the prophet Jesus a.s. at that time) as “these are Christians”, implying wrongly that they “worshipped Jesus” – whereas they were of the Judaic tradition that believed in monotheism (One God).
My friend didn’t deny the existence of one God. He knew that scientists can only prove THAT much of stuff, but most of it aren’t explainable by SCIENCE. But the issue he brought up was very tricky and he really got me thinking deep into my religion and my faith that intertwined together.
“how did you know its HIM up there? And not someone else?”
“how can you be so sure that the Quran is still true and accurate even after 1400years ago?”
“So you can only rely on your beliefs to know that God exists? Well I don’t need to see God, but I just need some proofs about the certainty of God.”
I’ve explained all to him but he just kept going on and on. Back and forth. Back and forth. Rephrasing and rephrasing.
I couldn’t convince him. Neither could I give him good answers. And I was upset. I have failed in my da’wah. I realized that I do not possess the qualities to be a muslim who can da’wah.
Is it because of my weak faith? Or my lack of knowledge and intelligence?
After sending him off, I began to question myself. Deep deep down my heart. If I believed in God, why couldn’t I be able to give good solid answers? If my Tauhid was strong, why couldn’t I convince him?
Instead of entertaining the Shaytan and his whisperings, I read all the books that I could find in the house. I went through all the materials in Chinese about tauhid (monotheism) on the internet. And I posted him a note about believing in God in Facebook. I hope he reads. And I fervently pray to Allah:
“Oh Allah! Please bestow the right guidance upon my friend. Amin.”
2 comments:
Salaams sister, I have been reading your blog for a while now and enjoy reading your entries.
With regards to your latest post, I think you should not be too upset about wanting to "convince" somebody about Islam. Ultimately, all you should do is explain what Islam is about and leave it at that. Inshallah, Allah may plant a seed in that person's heart which may bloom only later. There is a time and place for everything and you should not be too hard on yourself for not being able to "convince" someone.
At the end of the day, I firmly believe its our actions that speak the most. Whilst its good that you try to answer a person's questions on Islam, you should also not appear too preachy in doing so.
My 2 cents worth.
Alhamdulillah.
Glad that you enjoy it.And thank you for contributing that '2 cents worth' of comments. I think it's 5 cents worth, so you owe me 3 cents the next time you drop by. LOL.
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