IT'S God's grace that I'm blessed with His religion. I am Mohammed Umar Rao from India. I embraced Islam six years back at the age of 18. I wanted to share my story with you all. Perhaps this would make a difference for non-Muslims to really think over to understand what is the truth. I shared my story with two brothers, All praise and thanks be to God. They were convinced that my decision and choice is best and they started reading Qur'an and also embraced Islam a few days back. My background I come from a middle class orthodox Brahmin family; my parents worked in the private sector, mother was a teacher and father a textile engineer. My religious education was at my maternal uncle's place, that's how I became orthodox and my whole family education was always against Muslims, which was entrenched in me deeply. I was associated with the hard-line Hindu party, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), for a few years. I always hated Muslims to the extent that in all public functions I wanted to give high volume for music sound boxes to ensure that the Adhaan (Call to prayer) should not be heard at all. I used to go around the town visiting all temples to complete my worship everyday. I was liked, appreciated in the family for being orthodox and was encouraged to do more. My meeting with Islam In the summer, my mother asked me to work for a Muslim business firm, to which I didn't agree, because from childhood I always hated Muslims. My mother stopped forcing me on this; I worked few summers with a non-Muslim so I was able to satisfy my parents. Later, I quit that part-time job because I did not like the job and started concentrating more on studies aiming for a better career. In the meantime, my mother and sisters worked for two months for this Muslim brother. They were highly impressed with him. I always hated this person because I did not like the fact that my people were praising a Muslim whom I always hated. I was pushed and insulted for not being useful to the family, so I started working for the same Muslim brother though I hated him before going. After getting in his shop I started hating more because the non-Muslim employees of that shop had embraced Islam. I took this challenge to teach him a lesson claiming my religion is true and from there I started doing a comparative study of religions with whatever common sense God had then blessed me with. By now, in the quest to know more about Islam, I started reading English translation of the Holy Qur'an (by Abdullah Yusuf Ali). This changed my entire student life; I was struck with fear, doubts and I realized that whatever I was doing was wrong, my religion is all about imaginations/myths and false stories. I had many questions, doubts like where am I heading to, what should I do? What is my duty? Why has the message of truth not reached all of us? Many questions came to my mind and my entire student life went in this hunt for truth. I started questioning my parents and people around me that if anyone has seen God Almighty to paint/make images of him. None has seen God which is so true as it is mentioned at many places in the Qur'an. Finally, some mythological stories broke my faith down. The stories of Ganesha, Chamundeswari, Ram, Sita etc. did not make sense to me. I could no longer imagine them as gods. When I questioned my parents about Vedas which are against idol worship and why do we still practice it, my mother scolded me saying we are supposed to do it as our forefathers did it. The next day I read verses in the Qur'an which read: “When it is said to them: ‘Follow what Allah has sent down.' They say: “Nay! We shall follow what we found our fathers following.” (Would they do that!) Even though their fathers did not understand anything nor were they guided?” (2:170) And: “That was a nation who has passed away. They shall receive the reward of what they earned and you of what you earn. And you will not be asked of what they used to do.” (2:134) When I read them I was shocked to see something which I just questioned my mother the previous night. This ayah (verse) hit me right deep inside. I slowly stopped worshipping idols, and stopped doing Pooja (A Hindu ritual for prayer), since shirk (polytheism) is the only sin which will never be forgiven. In the beginning, I started practicing the teachings of Islam in secret. There were few (themes) from Chapter Al-Baqarah (Chapter 2) which (mean that) there are few who accept Islam wherever it profits them and not wholeheartedly (and that they) are hypocrites. Also: “This day, I have perfected your religion for you, completed My Favor upon you, and have chosen for you Islam as your religion.” (5:3) I realized that all answers to the questions I had in my mind were present in the Qur'an. By the grace of God, I started conveying the message of God at my home with little knowledge I had. I wanted to complete my B.E. After my final year of diploma I was pushed to wall, then the time came where I had no choice but to leave my family. My sister also embraced Islam and she joined me. We had to live out of our house for more than a year without a job or regular source of income. All praise be to God, God made our ways easy to be firm on truth. As God says in the Qur'an: “Do people think that they will be left alone because they say: ‘We believe,' and will not be tested?” (29:2) Over a period, Alhamdolillah, God opened doors of opportunities for us. I quit my previous job as I was unable to perform my five times prayer. All the opportunities that came my way were from the mechanical industry which demanded that I work in shifts and compromise with my prayer. After quitting that job of more than a year, I did not get any job where I could perform my prayers on time. But soon enough, by the grace of God, I found a better Job. Almighty God has chosen us, there's nothing more required. Courtesy:islamreligion.com __
