Bruce Paterson, Ex-Christian, UK
- Categories: Da'wah to Non-Muslims -
I would like to take the opportunity to share with you my
journey to Islam and I feel that by sharing this experience with
you I can help you on your journey through life. We are all born
into different cultures, countries and religions in what often
seems a confusing and troubled world. Actually, when we examine the
world around us, we can easily see what a troubled state it is in:
war, poverty and crime. Need I go on? Yet when we look at our own
upbringing and our education, how can we be sure that all the
things that we have been told, are in reality the truth?
Unfortunately, most people in the world decide to try to hide and
escape from the world's problems rather than stand up and deal with
the truth. Dealing with the truth is often the harder avenue to
follow. The question is: Are you willing to stand up for the truth?
Are you strong enough? Or, are you going to escape and hide like
the rest?
I started my search for the truth a number of years ago. I wanted
to find out the truth about the reality of our existence. Surely,
to understand life correctly is the key to solving all the worldly
problems that we are faced with today. I was born into a Christian
family and this is where my journey began. I started to read the
bible and to ask questions. I quickly became unsatisfied. The
priest told me, "You just have to have faith." From reading the
bible I found contradictions and things that were clearly wrong.
Does God contradict himself? Does God lie? Of course not!
I moved on from Christianity, thinking the scriptures of the Jews
and the Christians are corrupted so there is no way that I can find
the truth from the false. I started finding out about Eastern
Religions and Philosophies, particularly Buddhism. I spent a long
time meditating in Buddhist temples and talking to the Buddhist
monks. Actually, the meditating gave me a good clean feeling. The
trouble was that it didn't answer any of my questions about the
reality of existence. Instead it carefully avoided them in a way
that makes it seem stupid to even talk about it.
I traveled to many parts of the world during my quest for the
truth. I became very interested in tribal religions and the
spiritualist way of thinking. I found that a lot of what these
religions were saying had truth in them, but I could never accept
the whole religion as the truth. This was the same as where I
started with Christianity!
I began to think that there was truth in everything and it didn't
really matter what you believed in or what you followed. Surely
though this is a form of escaping. I mean, does it make sense: one
truth for one person and another truth for someone else? There can
only be one truth!
I felt confused, I fell to the floor and prayed, "Oh, please God, I
am so confused, please guide me to the truth." This is when I
discovered Islam.
Of course I always knew something about Islam, but only what we
naively hear in the West. I was surprised though by what I found.
The more that I read the Quran and asked questions about what Islam
taught, the more truths I received. The striking difference between
Islam and every other religion is that Islam is the only religion
that makes a strict distinction between the creator and the
creation. In Islam, we worship the creator. Simple. You will find
however, that in every other religion there is some form of worship
involving creation. For example, worshipping men as incarnations of
God or stones, sounds familiar. Surely though, if you are going to
worship anything, you should worship the one that created all. The
one that gave you your life and the one who will take it away
again. In fact, in Islam, the only sin that God will not forgive is
the worship of creation.
However, the truth of Islam can be found in the Quran. The Quran is
like a text book guide to life. In it you will find answers to all
questions. For me, everything I had learnt about all the different
religions, everything that I knew to be true, fitted together like
pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. I had all the pieces all along but I
just did not know how to fix them together.
I would therefore like to ask you to consider Islam now. The true
Islam as described in the Quran. Not the Islam that we get taught
about in the West. You may at least be able to cut down your
journey in search of the truth about life. I pray for your success,
regardless.
By Bruce Paterson
IslamReligion.com