Stories Of New Muslims

Mr. Malik Hassan

 

Oct. 23rd, 1996. Assalamalaikum
brothers and sisters and non-Muslims.

First off all, I would like to start by
saying that this true story is not for my own fame or admiration but for the
sake of my Lord and your Lord Allah. All praises due to Allah, the Lord of the
worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful Owner of the day of judgement. I would
like to repeat to you something I heard: the journey of a thousand miles has to
start with the first step and this is the first part of my journey.

My name is Malik
Mohammed Hassan and I have recently converted to Islam. When I was in junior
high school I was first introduced to Islam by reading the book Roots by Alex
Haley. It taught me a little bit about the strong will that most Muslims
possess, myself included. It also introduced me to Allah. I had never heard of
Allah in his real form until I read that book and I was very curious. I then
started reading about The Nation Of Islam (specifically Malcolm X) and it
fascinated me how devoted he was to Allah, especially after he left the self
serving Nation Of Islam. Reading about Malcolm made me think about a God who
(for a change) did not have any physical form or limitations and, being a
totally blind person, it made me relate to these people: the people who Malcolm
and Haley referred to as Muslims. I continued reading what I could about Islam
which wasn't as much as it should have been. My reading material was very
limited because like I said above: I am a totally blind person and the material
available about Islam in Braille or on tape was not only very little, but also
very general. I believe the reason was that the material that I had access to
wasn't written by Muslims and it kind of painted a dark picture of Islam. I
think most of the literature written by Christians or non-Muslims about Islam
tends to do that most of the time. And I didn't know that their were even
Muslims in Halifax so I obviously didn't know any. I didn't even know about the
local Islamic association until I was already a Muslim.

So, I read what I could
until my first year out of high school around the month of May, 1996, when I
received a phone call asking me if I wanted to participate in a camp for blind
and visually impaired people known throughout Canada as Score. I agreed and
sent them a resume and praise be to Allah I was excepted for work. At first I
really didn't want to go but something kept telling me it would be a good idea
if I went. So, on June 30th 1996 I boarded a plane from Nova Scotia to Toronto
and took my last trip as a non-Muslim; I just didn't know it yet.

I got to Toronto and
everything at first was pretty normal... It was on the second day that I was
there when the journey of a thousand miles first started. I arrived on a Sunday
and on the next day I met the person who Allah would use with His divine power
to help guide me to the beautiful Religion of Islam. I met a sister named
Rizvana and if she reads this I hope she doesn't get mad at me for using her
name. When I met her, I immediately wanted to talk to her because I liked her
name. I asked her of what origin her name was and she told me that it was
Arabic; so I asked her if she was Muslim and she replied with the answer of
yes. I immediately started telling her what I already knew about Islam which
lasted about ten seconds. I started asking her
questions and also asking her to talk to me about Islam.

One particular incident
that comes to my mind is when all of the workers at the camp went to a baseball
game and the sister and I started talking about Islam and missed pretty much
the whole game. Well, anyway, we talked for about three, maybe four days on and
off about Islam and on July the fifth if my memory doesn't fail me I became a
Muslim. My life has been totally different ever since. I look at things very
differently than I used to and I finally feel like I belong to a family. All
Muslims are brothers and sisters in Islam so I could say that I have
approximately 1.2 billion brothers and sisters all of whom I'm proud to be
related to. I finally know what it feels like to be humble and to worship a God
that I don't have to see.

For any non-Muslim
reading this just look at it this way. It's good to learn, but you never know
when you will be tested and if you're not in the class at the time of the final
exam no matter how much you know you'll never get any credit. So like I said
it's good to learn but if you want to get credit sign up for the class. In
other words, declare Shehada (testimony to faith) and let Allah teach you everything you need to
know. Believe me the reward is worth it. You could say the reward is literally
heaven.

If any good comes out
of this story all the credit is due to Allah; only the mistakes are my own. I
would like to mention a part of a hadith that has had a great effect on me and
that is: "Worship Allah as if you see him and if you don't see him, know
that he sees you." - Sahih Muslim, Volume 1, Number 1