11 new Muslims felicitated JEDDAH – A program was organized by Moulana Hafiz-ur-Rahman academy Jeddah in the honor of 11 new Muslims on May 7 2010 at a restaurant in Jeddah. Bahjet Najmi, the president and founder of the academy, introduced the chief guest Sheikh Salman, earlier B. Ratna Rajo, who for the last 10 years has been preaching and spreading Islam in the kingdom. Allah guided over 500 people to Islam through him, including several who reverted recently and were attending the event. Sheikh Salman was a devoted Christian hailing from the Andhra Pradesh state of India. He embraced Islam in 1993 after reading several books of Ahmed Deedat on Christianity and Islam. “I was a Christian in a village called West Godawi, where there were no Muslims at that time. My life revolved around Hindus and Christians. My grandfather was a devoted Christian and he taught me to be the same. I was the first postgraduate in my village and was also preaching Christianity in the local church,” said Sheikh Salman. Even during that time he had questions in his mind regarding the holy spirit. These things led him to think about the Creator of the universe and sometimes he felt uneasy, but as a devoted Christian he continued preaching in the church for sometime. But an accident turned things around. “Few people were not happy with my sermons in the church. They accused me of false allegations. That broke my heart and I swore not to go back to the church,” he said. “I had no job and I was depressed. I wanted to go to a peaceful place and earn some money. I found a job in Saudi Arabia, but it offered only for SR400 as salary. I accepted it just to move out of my village.” Though a postgraduate, he was recruited as a laborer. When he arrived here he was given the job of a gate keeper. During his course of stay, he happened to come across a book of Sheikh Ahmed Deedat on “Muhammad in the Bible.” He read and verified if all the facts written were true. He went on to read six more books on Islam and Christianity by the late Sheikh Ahmed Deedat. “I met once with Jamal Pasha, an Indonesian da'ee. He asked me different questions about Christianity. He told me about Islam and put me to think about Allah,” Salman said. “I never had the chance before to see what happens in the mosque and how Muslims prayed. I asked Jamal Pasha and he showed me and also referenced to how similar form of worship was found Jesus's life as mentioned even in the Bible.” After a year of learning and searching about Islam, his heart was turning towards it. But he was worried how his family will take it. He explained to his wife about Islam and the heartfelt passion he felt for Islam. He and his wife both embraced Islam. “I worked as a cleaner for 6 months in the Da'wah center, but now I am working as da'ee of Islam in the Telugu language. There was no literature or books available in the Telugu language. So I started translation to distribute Islamic knowledge among those who speak Telugu,” he said.
