REVERT

ABDULLAH QUILLIAM

“Alcohol is forbidden for Muslims… and had theological concerns about Trinitarian Christianity”

Abdullah Quilliam

Original name: William Henry Quilliam
Other names: Henri Marcel Leon, Haroun Mustapha Leon
Title: Sheikhul Islam
Birth: April 10, 1856 in Liverpool, UK.
Death: April 23, 1932 in London, UK.
Nationality: British
Occupation: Dean of the London School of Physiology; Solicitor; writer; publisher; Imam and the most passionate advocate of Islam in the Western world.
Activities: He regularly led prayers in the mosque in Liverpool, and brought about two hundred English persons into the fold of Islam. He maintained connection with the Woking Muslim Mission, and participated in Islamic lectures and prayers. He had an intense interest in reading. He was one of the permanent readers of the world famous British Museum Library. Founded the Liverpool Muslim Institute, within whose building was a prayer room known as the mosque. This mosque is widely described as the first mosque in the UK. He published two periodicals The Crescent Weekly and The Islamic World Monthly. This movement remained active from the early 1890s to 1908; opened a boarding school for boys and a day school for girls. He also opened an orphanage (Medina House) for non-Muslim children whose parents could not look after them, and agreed to for them to be raised in the values of Islam.
Works: He also wrote and published a number of books. In particular his Faith of Islam had three editions translated into thirteen different languages, and was so popular that Queen Victoria ordered a copy and then re-ordered copies for her grandchildren.
Parent: Robert Quilliam (father, William Abdullah Quilliam, founder of England’s first registered mosque ), Harriet (mother, later converted to Muslim)
Spouse: Hannah Johnstone, Maryam
Previous faiths: Methodist
Revert: 1887
Reason: “William Abdullah Quilliam was brought up as a devout Christian and was part of the Temperance Movement which promoted abstinence from alcohol. One of the reasons he was attracted to Islam was that alcohol is forbidden for Muslims. He also had theological concerns about Trinitarian Christianity,” said Professor Ron Geaves , the author of Islam in Victorian Times, during his first Abdullah Quilliam Lecture at the Pakistan Community Centre in Liverpool, earlier April 2012.

Wikipedia, Muslimvillage.com; http://abdullahquilliam.com; http://www.bbc.co.uk

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 13 July 2012

AMINAH ASSILMI

“For two years I studied in order to convert Muslims to Christianity”

Aminah Assilmi

Original name: Janice Huff
Birth: 1945
Death: March 5, 2010 in New York (in a traffic accident).
Nationality: American
Occupation: A broadcast journalist, former radical feminist, Muslim community activist, director of the International Union of Muslim Women.
Education: A degree in Recreation in Oklahoma.
Spouse: A husband with three children.
Works: My Journey to Islam: Aminah Assilmi Life Story; Choosing Islam
Activities: Involved in the release of the US’s 2001 Eid stamp and creating an educational centre for Muslim converts.
Awards: Named one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world in 2009 by the Amman-based Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre; An award-winning broadcaster in the Denver market.
Previous faith: Southern Baptist
Revert: May 21, 1977
Reason: “For two years I studied in order to convert Muslims to Christianity. But during that time I started to change. My husband began to notice that I no longer had an interest in going to bars or parties. I was content to stay home and study al-Quran. I was quiet and more distant. My husband attributed the changes in me to another man and we separated… After I moved out with my children, I was visited by a Muslim holy leader who answered my questions about Islam. He asked me if she believed in only one God and I said yes. He asked me if I believed Muhammad was His messenger. Again I said yes. He told me I was already a Muslim. I argued that I was a Christian, I was just trying to understand Islam. I couldn’t be a Muslim! I was an American and white!… We continued talking. Later he explained that attaining knowledge and understanding of spirituality was a little like climbing a ladder. The first rung on the ladder was the Shahadah, a statement of belief that there is no God but the one God and Mohammed was His messenger. The Shahadah, done before witnesses, is in the Islamic faith..”

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 4 May 2012

Sources: Wikipedia; islamreligion.com

INGRID MATTSON

“Through reading the Qur’an I became aware of the presence of God”

Ingrid Mattson

Name: Ingrid Mattson
Birth: 1963 in Kitchener, Ontario, USA.
Nationality: Canadian/American
Education: Philosophy and fine arts at the University of Waterloo, Ontario (1987); Ph.D. in Islamic studies from the University of Chicago, USA (1999).
Occupation: Director of the Duncan Black Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations and Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. She founded the Islamic Chaplaincy program at Hartford Seminary, the first Islamic chaplaincy program in the United States. And, the Chair of the Islamic Studies Program at the Anglican theology department of Huron University College of The University of Western Ontario (2011).
Activities: Canadian Muslim convert professor and activist; Volunteer for Afghan refugees (1987-1988) in Pakistan; An adviser to the Afghan delegation to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (1995); Vice President (2001) and President (2006) of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA); Educating Canadian Muslims to become active participants in Canadian society at large; An advisor to the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002), produced by Unity Productions Foundation; and Guest lecturer at such institutions as the US Naval Academy.
Works: The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life (2007),
Awards: Recipient of the Dr. Betty Shabazz Award (2007), Chicago Theological Seminary Awards Honorary Degrees for her commitment to interreligious engagement, understanding and collaboration on a range of justice issues (May 2012).
Spouse: Aamer Atek, an Egyptian engineer, with two children.
Previous faith: Roman Catholic
Revert: 1986
Reason: “Islam bringing me back to believe in God. I grew up in a Christian family in Kitchener, Ontario. My father was a criminal lawyer and my mother stayed at home to raise seven children. But I stopped attending church at age 16 when I realised that I just didn’t believe what I was being taught. I left religion entirely and studied philosophy at the university, embracing existentialism… In a way, that philosophy (which emphasis of the individual to make choices in a meaningless world) was good preparation for being a Muslim. What you choose defines what you are, and while people may be limited in the choices they have in life, there is always the opportunity to choose good. So the emphasis in Islam on human responsibility (for choosing right over wrong) made a lot o sense to me – it didn’t absolve people from responsibility for their actions or give them an easy way out. But when they embrace that responsibility, it gives them a sense of peace… Most important, though, it was through reading the Qur’an that I became aware of the presence of God and was convinced of it – that it was what touched my heart.”

Wikipedia; whyislam.com; http://www.irfi.org; Newsweek; womeninislam.org; ctschicago.edu; muslimconverts.com

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 3 August 2012

JAMAAL AL-DIN ZARABOZO

“The combination of the idea of Tawhid and the preservation of the text of the Quran affected me the most”

Jamaluddin Zarabozo

Name: Sheykh Jamaal al-Din M. Zarabozo
Birth: 1960, France.
Nationality: Spanish-American.
Residence: Berkeley, Colorado, US.
Education: Bachelors degree in Economics at the University of California in Berkley and in Davis, Master’s Degree in Economics from UC in Davis. Left his Ph.D. studies to pursue Islamic studies. Learnt Arabic autodidactly and studied Islam with Dr. Mustafa Azami, a world-renown scholar of hadith, in Boulder, Colorado.
Occupation: Islamic scholar, lecturer, editor, and author of numerous books on Islam
Activities: Imam of the Islamic Center of Boulder, Colorado; teaching Islamic and Arabic Language classes from the Muslim Community Association of the San Francisco Bay Area and from Masjid An-Nur Islamic Center (available via live streaming from his website http://www.jamaalzarabozo.com); a regular guest on the Islam Channel, and founder and editor of al-Basheer Magazine.
Works: A Commentary on the Forty Hadith of Nawawi, Towards Understanding Islam – Part I, How to Approach and Understand the Quran, The Authority and Importance of the Sunnah, Purification of the Soul, He Came to Teach you your Religion, The Fiqh of the Friday Prayer, The Friday Prayer – Khutbas I-II, Easy Fiqh, and Jihad and Western Attitude toward War. Translation from Arabic books: if The World of The Jinn and The Devils by Omar Al-Ashqar, Words of Remembrance and Words of Reminder ( Salih al-Sadlaan), The Fiqh of Marriage (Salih al-Sadlaan), Marital Discordn (Salih al-Sadlaan), The Concise Presentation of The Fiqh, Fiqh al-Sunnah (Syed Sabiq) and Religious Extremism in the Lives of Contemporary Muslims.
Previous faith: Catholic
Revert: 1976
Reason: “The idea of Tawhid appealed to me first of all – as it does to many converts to Islam – as this was one of the main problems I had with Christianity. The combination of the idea of Tawhid and the preservation of the text of the Qur’an were the aspects that affected me the most. I believed that if a Prophet was sent and needed to be followed, then we have to be able to say what that Prophet brought, and I could not find any people, other than the Muslims, who could say that so, I decided to become a Muslim. I was 16 years old at the time. I assumed there were no Muslims around, so I told my friends that I was Muslim. I started praying – I had a book which was written by a Christian missionary who had been to India in the 1800s. The book was called the Dictionary of Islam and it describes the prayer. That’s where I first learned how to pray…”

muslimmatters.org, wikipedia

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR:
“The Quran was the next revelation from the Supeme Being”

Name : Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor,Jr
Birth : April 16, 1947 in Manhattan, New York City, USA
Nationality : American
Occupation : Professional basketball player, coach, actor and author
Education : A degree in history from UCLA
Spouse : Habiba (born Janice Brown) with three children (divorce) and one son with Cheyl Pistono
Parent : Cora Lilian (mother), Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor (father)
Awards : Many athletics honours since 1967, the latest one was “#7 in SLAM Magazine’s Top NBA Players of All Time in 2009”.
Works : Giant Steps with Oeter Knobler (1983); Kareem with Mignon Mccarthy (1990), Selected from Giant Steps (Writers’ Voices, 1999), Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement,with Alan Steinbg (1996), A Season on the Reservation: My Sojourn with the White Mountain Apaches with Stepehn Singular (2000), Brothers in arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, WWII’s Forgotten Heroes with Anthony Walton (2004), and On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance with Raymond Obstfeld (2007).
Filmography : Game of Death (1978), Airplane (1980) and some sitcoms such as Full House, Living Single, and Amen.
Madzhab : Sunni
Previous faith : Catholicism
Revert : 1968
Reason : “… My choosing Islam was not a political statement; it was a spiritual statement. What I learned about the Bible and the Quran made me see that the Quran was the next revelation from the Suprmee Being – and I chose to interpret that and follow that… The Quran tells us that Jews, Christians, and Muslims: Muslims are supposed to treat all of them the same way because we all believe in the same prophets and heaven and hell would be the same for all of us. And that’s what it’s supposed to b about.”

Islamreligion.com; wikipedia

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Fri, December 16, 2011

LAUREN BOOTH

“I had been saying ‘Dear Allah’ instead of ‘Dear God”

Lauren Booth

Name : Sarah Booth
Birth : July 22, 1967 in Islington, London, England
Education : Copthall Girls School, London
Spouse : Craig Darby
Children : Alexandra Booth, Holly Booth
Parent :Tony Booth (father), Pamela Smith (mother)
Occupation : Journalist, broadcaster, columnist, human right activist, a patron of Cageprisoners ( June 2011)
Previous faith : Judaism, Catholicism
Revert : Mid-September, 2010
Reason : “My own path to Islam began with an awakening to the gap between what had been drip-fed to me about all Muslim life – and the reality. I began to wonder about the calmness exuded by so many of the “sisters” and “brothers”… And on my visit to Iran this September (2010, ed.), the washing, kneeling, chanting recitations of the prayers at the mosques I visited reminded me of the west’s view of an entirely different religion; one that is known for eschewing violence and embracing peace and love through quiet meditation. A religion trendy with movie stars such as Richard Gere, and one that would have been much easier to admit to following in public – Buddhism. Indeed, the bending, kneeling and submission of Muslim prayers resound with words of peace and contentment. Each one begins, “Bismillahir rahmanir Rahim” – “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate” – and ends with the phrase “Assalamu ‘alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh” – Peace be upon you all and God’s mercy and blessing… Almost unnoticed to me, when praying for the last year or so, I had been saying “Dear Allah” instead of “Dear God”. They both mean the same thing, of course, but for the convert to Islam the very alien nature of the language of the holy prayers and the holy book can be a stumbling block. I had skipped that hurdle without noticing. Then came the pull: a sort of emotional ebb and flow that responds to the company of other Muslims with a heightened feeling of openness and warmth. Well, that’s how it was for me, anyway…”

Reuters, Wikipedia, The Guardian

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 25 November 2011

MARYAM JAMEELAH

“I was comparing in my mind what I had read in the Old Testament and the Talmud with what was taught in the Quran and Hadith…”

Maryam Jameelah

Original name: Margaret Marcus
Birth: May 23, 1934 in New Rochelle, New York City
Ethnicity: Jewish
Nationality: Pakistani
Education: University of Rocheste; Judaism in Islam in New York University (dropped out in 1956)
Occupation: Author, Islamic ideologist, critic of secularism, materialism and modernization.
Spouse: Muhammad Yusuf Khan with five children
Parent: Myra and Herbert Marcus
Works: Wrote some 25 articles and books, among of them: Ahmad Khalil: The Story of a Palestinian Refugee and His Family (novel), Correspondences between Maulana Mawdoodi and Maryam Jameelah, Why I Embraced Islam, Islam and Modernism, Westernization and Human Welfare, Islam and Muslim Woman Today, Three Great Islamic Movemenets in the Arab World of the Recent Past, Islam and Western Society, Modern Technology and the Dehumanization of Man, Islam and Modern Man, and Generation Gap – Its Causes and Consequences
Previous faith: Judaism, humanistic philosophy, atheism, Bahaism
Revert: May 24, 1961 in New York City
Reason: “One morning in November 1954, Professor Katsh during his lecture, argued with irrefutable logic that the monotheism taught my Moses (PBUH) and the Divine laws related to him at Sinai were indispensable as the basis for all higher ethical values. If morals were purely man-made as the Ethical Culture and other agnostic and atheistic philosophies taught then they could be changed at will according to mere whim, convenience or circumstance. The result would be utter chaos leading to individual and collective ruin. Belief in the Hereafter as the Rabbis in the Talmud taught, argued Prof. Katsh, was not mere wishful thinking but a moral necessity. Only those he said who firmly believed that each of us will be summoned by God on judgment Day to render a complete account of our life and rewarded or punished accordingly, will possess the self-discipline to sacrifice transitory pleasures and endure hardships and sacrifice to attain lasting good. While Prof. Katsh was lecturing thus, I was comparing in my mind what I had read in the Old Testament and the Talmud with what was taught in the Quran and Hadith and finding Judaism so defective , I was converted to Islam.” (Quoted from her book Islam and Modernism)

http://maryam–jameelah.blogspot.com; wikipedia

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 2 March 2012

MICHAEL WOLFE

“The more I learned about Islam, the more it appeared to conform to what I was after..”

Michael Wolfe

Name: Michael Wolfe
Birth: 3 April 1945 in Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Nationality: American
Residence: Northern California
Education: Bachelor of Arts in Classics, Cum Laude, Wesleyan University (1968)
Spouse: Dr Raana W Akbar (died in 2009)
Occupation: Poet, author, journalist, columnist, a frequent lecturer on Islamic issues (also writing and literature), founder, President and Executive Producer of Unity Production Foundation, a non-profit organization.
Works: The Hajj: An American Pilgrimage to Mecca (1993), One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Travellers Writing about the Muslim Pilgrimage (1997), Taking Back Islam: American Muslim Reclaimm their Faith (2003), Paradise: Reading Notes (2010).
Filmography: Muhammad: Legacy of Prophet (2002), Cities of Light: The Rise and Falls of Islamic Spain (documentary, 2007), On A Wing and A Prayer, Allah Made Me Funny (2008), and Talking through Walls (2009).
Awards: The Wilbur Award in the category of the best religion book (2003), Lowell Thomas Award (1999), Marin County Arts Council Writers Award (1983, 1990), Cine Special Jury Award for Best Professional Documentary in the category of People and Places for Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet (2002).
Revert: 1989
Previous faith: Pluralism
Reason: “I could not have drawn up a list of demands, but I had a fair idea of what I was after. The religion I wanted should be to metaphysics as metaphysics is to science. It would be confined by a narrow rationalism or traffic in mystery to please its priests. There would be no priests, no spearation between nature and things sacred… Finally, i did want a ritual component, daily routine to sharpen the senses and discipline my mind. Above all, I wanted clarity and freedom. I did not want to trade away reason simply to be saddled with a dogma… The more I learned about Islam, the more it appeared to conform to what I was after.”

Sources: http://www.michaelwolfeauthor.com; amazon.com; islamreligion.com, allvoices; reverttoislam.blogspot.com; wikipedia

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 28 October 2011

MUHAMMAD SYAFI’I ANTONIO

“… No other religion which has a complete system and easily be understood than Islam”

Dr. H. Muhammad Syafi’i Antonio

Name: Dr. Muhammad Syafi’i Antonio
Original name: Nio Gwan Chung alias Pilot Sagaran Antonio
Birth: 12 May 1965, Sukabumi, West Java, Indonesia
Ethnicity: Chinese
Nationality: Indonesia
Education: Doctoral degree in microfinance from University of Melbourne (2004), Master degree in economics from International Islamic University, Malaysia (1992), Bachelors degree in Islamic law (Shariah) from University of Jordan (1990).
Occupation: Expert, lecturer, consultant, supervisor in Islamic banking and finance, management and leadership.
Activities: Founder of Tazkia Foundation, Chairman of Tazkia University College of Islamic Economics (STEI Tazkia), member of Expert Committee/Advisory Council in Islamic banking at the Central Bank of Indonesia, Central Bank of Malaysia, Global Shariah Board of al-Mawarid Finance and Insurance of Dubai and several Indonesian private banks.
Parents: Lien Soen Nio (Hajah Suniah Badrahalim, mother) and Nio Sem Nyau (father)
Works: Bank Syariah dari Teori ke Praktek (Islamic Bank from Theory to Practice, 2001), Muhammad SAW, The Super Leader Super Manager (2005), and Sukses Besar dengan Intervensi Allah: The Power of Doa with Asmaul Husna for Success in Business and in Life (2008).
Awards: Syariah Award fro the Central Bank of Indonesia, Indonesian Council of Ulama (MUI) and Bank Muamalat (2003), ‘Anti-corruption & GoodGovernance Award’ (Indonesia’s Ministry of State Apparatus, 2007), ‘Arab Asia Finance Recognition Award’ (Arab Asia Finance Forum, 2008), ‘Australian Alumni Award’ in Business Leadership category (the Government of Australia, 2009), Indonesia’s ‘Islamic Book Fair Award 2009’ for his best selling book Muhammad SAW: The Super Leader Super Manager, and nominee of ‘Islamic Development Bank Prize’ (Indonesia’s the Ministry
of Finance).
Previous faith: Confucianism, Protestantism
Revert: 1984
Reason: “As a monk, my father had a bad image concerning the Muslims’s behaviour because many of them were living in poverty, backwardness and ignorance. Nevertheless, I was eager to know about Islam. Therefore, I made a comparative study with the other religions, using three approaches: historical, natural and rational, but intentionally ignoring the holy books approach in order to reach an objective result.

By using these approaches, I saw Islam as a religion that is quiet easily be understood compared to the others.

In islam, I found that all of the prophets who were sent by God taught one mission, namely ‘Tauhid’ (pure monotheism). Besides, i was interested in Al-Qur’an which is full of miracles in various aspects, including its language, composition, content, news, literray order, scientific data, etc. Islamic teaching also has a very complete and comphrehensive value system, covering systems of faith order, belief and there is no need a mediator in worship. The ritual activities in Islam are universal. It means that everything, both ritual and non-ritual actions (domestic, economic, social and cultural matters), as far as they do not violate the Islamic teaching and is aimed to glorify Allah can be categorized as a worship.

It’s proven that there is no other religion which has a complete system rather than Islam.

It’s the result of the comparative study that placing my heart in solid decision to choose Islam as a religion which be able to respond any problems of life.”

Sources: syafiiantonio.com; mualaf.com; http://sites.google.com/site/kitpermiqa/pembicara

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 23 March 2012

SARAH JOSEPH

“Islam answering my questions”

Name : Sarah Joseph
Birth : 1971
Residence : London, United Kingdom
Nationality : British
Education : Theology and Religious Studies & The Dynamics of Conversion to Islam at King’s College London
Previous faith : Catholicism
Occupation : CEO and Editor of emel Muslim lifestyle magazine, writer, broadcaster, commentator and lecturer on Islam
Spouse : Mahmud al-Rashid (1992–present)
Children : Hasan (born 1996), Sumayyah (1999) and Amirah (2002)
Parents : Joe Askew (father), Valerie Askew (mother)
Awards : Order of the British Empire (2004)
Revert : 1987
Reason : “Slowly, Islam kept answering many of the questions which I had until I wanted to be a Muslim… I was a devout and practicing Roman Catholic, and my brother fell in love with a beautiful Muslim woman, and he converted to Islam in order to marry her. It didn’t really affect him at all, but it profoundly changed my life. It lead me on a path, which Allah was to make me look at Islam. The very first thing I heard from my mother in regards to his wife’s religion was, “Well, you do know that Jesus was born of a virgin in the Muslim faith.” Of course I didn’t believe her, but I happened to be in a library and I found a Quran. I looked it up in the back and read “Jesus, born of a virgin.” So it was the first point of contact with Islam. I then lost my faith in the Catholic Church, which had nothing to do with my study of Islam, but more to do with the journey I was on. It was a profound loss, and it was very painful, but I didn’t lose my faith in God, and I continued to believe. I also continued to study Islam, which was compelling. I kept asking questions, and it kept coming up with answers. To be honest, all I really ever wanted to do was to give and surrender my life to God. I suppose upon seeing a girl go into prostration was the moment when I realised that what I saw was a physical manifestation of what I knew, that Islam meant self-surrender unto God. I decided at that point to embrace Islam.”

Wikipedia; http://www.enotes.com; islamonline.net; http://keeptonyblairforpm.wordpress.com; http://www.lastprophet.info/interview-with-sarah-joseph-from-emel

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 30 September 2011

SUSAN CARLAND

“The nature of God in Islam appealed to me”

Susan Carland

Name: Susan Carland
Birth: 1980 in Melbourne, Australia
Nationality: Australian
Occupation: Sociologist, lecturer at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, specializes in gender studies, youth and sociology of religion, and researcher for the Centre for Muslim Minorities and Islam Policy Studies at Monash University.
Education: Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science and Doctoral degree on Western Muslim women leadership challenges.
Spouse: Waleed Aly with two children
Activities: A creator and panelist on the multi-award winning Australian national network program ‘Salam Cafe’; often consulted for commentary about Islam and Muslims in a variety of mainstream media; giving the International Women’s Day address at the Victorian Parliament house in 2003; a youth worker with Grassroots, an initiative of the Islamic Council of Victoria, which aims to address and serve the specific needs of young Australian Muslims; a state-coordinator for the Train the Trainers Course in Da’wah and Dialogue.
Awards: The Australian Muslim of the Year 2004; named one of the International Muslim Leaders of Tomorrow by the UN Alliance of Civilisations (2009).
Previous faith: Christianity
Revert: 1999
Reason: “I felt the sense of intellectual liberation… I had found that Islam didn’t has that intellectual divide between mind and body and soul that I had found in Christianity… I found a faith that was peaceful,egalitarian, socially just, and with a beautiful balance of the spiritual and the intellectual… I found that the nature of God in Islam appealed to me.”

Sources: The Sydney Morning Herald; extremelysmart.org

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 15 June 2012

YUSUF ESTES

“I knew that the truth had come at last… ”

Yusuf Estes

Original name: Skip Estes
Birth: January 1, 1944 in Ohio, US.
Nationality: American
Occupation: Businessman (musical instruments, radio and TV station), ententainer, Christian preacher turned to Muslim preacher, the founder and operator of GuideUS TV; Director of the Islamic Mission Foundation International.
Activities: Music Minister (in many of churches); Delegate to UN Peace Summit for Religious Leaders (September 2000) and Muslim Chaplain for the US Bureau of Prisons (1994-2000).
Works: Bible: A Closer Look and Islam Cracks the Code – DaVinci
Previous faiths: Catholic, “Born Again” and Protestant.
Revert: 1991
Reason: “One day in the Spring of 1991, I came to know that the Muslims believed in the Bible. I was shocked. How could this be? But that’s not all, they believe in Jesus as: A true messenger of God; A Prophet of God; Miracle birth without human intervention; He was the ‘Christ’ or Messiah as predicted in the Bible; He is with God now and most important: He will be coming back in the Last Days to lead the believers against the ‘Antichrist.’

After “winning souls to the Lord for Jesus” day after day, this would be a big achievement for me, to catch one of these ‘Moslems’ and ‘convert’ him to Christianity

… So, I went upstairs to think things over a bit and began to talk to my wife about the whole subject. She then told me that she too was going to enter into Islam, because she knew it was the truth. I was really shocked now. I went downstairs and woke up Mohamed and asked him to come outside with me for a discussion. We walked and talked that whole night through. By the time he was ready to pray Fajr (the morning prayer of the Muslims) I knew that the truth had come at last and now it was up to me to do my part. I went out back behind my father’s house and found an old piece of plywood lying under an overhang and right there I put my head down on the ground facing the direction that the Muslims pray five times a day. Now then in that position, with my body stretched out on the plywood and my head on the ground, I asked: “O God. If you are there, guide me, guide me.” And then after a while I raised up my head and I noticed something. .. What I did notice was a change inside of me. I was aware now more than ever before that it was time for me to stop any lying and doing anything sneaky. It was time that I really work at being an honest and upright man. I knew now what I had to do. So I went upstairs and took a shower with the distinct idea that I was ‘washing’ away the sinful old person that I had become over the years. And I was now coming into a new, fresh life. A life based on truth and proof. Around 11 am that morning, I stood before two witnesses, one the ex-priest, formerly known as Father Peter Jacob’s, and the other Mohamed Abel Rehman and announced my ‘shahadah’ …“

http://www.islamtomorrow.com; http://yusufestes.com/; Wikipedia; http://www.islamevents.com

Islamia/The Brunei Times
Friday, 28 May 2012

Darul Aqsha