بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
Alhamdulillah, I am a convert to Ahmadiyyat. By the Grace of Allah I was born into an Ahmadi Muslm family. I believe, however, that being born into an Ahmadi Muslim family does not constitute one to entirely be an Ahmadi. The reason for this is that I believe we have to learn about faith through questioning and only when we do that will true belief enter our hearts.
We read in The Holy Qur’an that the Prophet Abraham asked Allah, “My Lord, show me how You revive the dead”. Allah responded by asking, “Do you not believe?” to which Abraham replied, “Yes, but (I ask you) in order that my heart may be at rest.” One may infer from these verses that Abraham did not fully believe, but this is not the case as he desired for his heart to be satisfied.
This is the story of how Allah satisfied my heart.
When I was in my mid teens something happened in my life which made me question God’s existence. One of my dearest friends (May Allah bless his soul) suddenly passed away in secondary school after contracting a violent form of cancer. This lead to me to raise a series of questions regarding things such as the existence of God, God’s Benevolence, evil and suffering, life after death and religion in general. I have to admit, there was a time where I cursed God in the foulest language because I was angry at the way things were in my life. Little did I know that this was going to serve as the basis of my hearts satisfaction in Allah, Islam and Ahmadiyyat.
So my journey started. I began to look for the answers to my questions in every major respective faith. I looked into Buddhism and even started practising meditation. I looked into Christianity and began to attend Sunday service. I looked into Judaism but my heart was not at all content. I then thought to myself that I should look into that religion that I was born into. After all, what would I say to God if I didn’t explore the religion which was right in front of me?
That year, my mother purchased a copy of the Holy Qur’an with English Translation from the annual Jalsa Salana UK for me. Till then I had only read the Qur’an when I was a child. So I made a promise to God. I said that if I do not find truth in this book then I have not found truth in anything and hence I would not have found truth in God. My sincere prayer and my heart’s yearning for the truth laid a foundation.
By Him in whose hand is my life, when I finished reading The Holy Qur’an, I was not the same person I was when I started. I wanted to be like those mentioned in The Holy Qur’an. I wanted to be among those who on the Day of Judgement Allah could point to and say, “You know those people I was talking about... Here they are... Enter My Garden for I am well pleased with you.” My friends at the Mosque, at school and ‘on the street’ also noticed a change in my personality and mannerisms.
Reading The Holy Qur’an made me realise that God did indeed exist. One of the reasons why I believe this is because of the many sciences mentioned in The Holy Qur’an such as embryology, astrology, mathematics, anthropology, spirituality, logic and reason. A man who did not know how to read could not have made up such intricate truths without knowledge from an Almighty God. This is my simple reasoning to which I believe The Holy Qur’an as the Word of God and proof of the existence of God. The Holy Qur’an is indeed the miracle of Islam.
Now, after my faith in God had been somewhat established, I sought to reason why there are so many divisions within Islam. It seemed that many of the sects of Islam were very far from the true teachings of The Holy Qur’an. It was during this time I began researching by reading the books of The Ahmadiyya Jama’at and questioned my friends and their Imams at their respective mosques. Until this day, I have not come across anyone who can refute anything of the Ahmadiyya theology. Through following what The Promised Messiah, Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad had said we can establish a living relationship with God; and by The Grace of Allah, I have experienced firsthand the sweetness of true faith. Alhamdulillah.
This is the reason why I began this by stating that I am a convert to Ahmadiyyat. I hope now that those who read this understand why I said that even though I was born into an Ahmadi family everyone needs to question his faith and learn about it just as Abraham did.
The Holy Qur’an says that we should always be ready to accept the Truth where we find it. This means that it is incumbent on every true seeker to not only hold this belief but to express it that he is ready to accept the truth for ‘Only Allah knows who is misguided and who is on the straight path.’ I have held this belief in Ahmadiyya Islam for well over a decade now and as the late Munir Hamid Sahib (May Allah raise his status in Paradise) said: "It is Allah Who bought me into this movement, and I'm not leaving until Allah takes me out." My craving for the Truth and seeking of His Love obligates me to accept it where my heart finds it.
My humble prayer is for everyone to become a faithful seeker of Truth. May God enable us all to be guided on the straight path. May God imbue in us His love and make it dearer to us than ourselves, our families and cold, refreshing water, Allahumma Amin.
