From Hindu Brahmin to Islam

Saturday, October 28, 2006 FROM HINDU BRAHMIN TO ISLAM My Jourey To Islam Those whom Allah (in His Plan) willeth to guide He openeth their breast to Islam; those whom He willeth to leave straying He maketh their breast close and constricted as if they had to climb up to the skies: thus doth Allah (heap) the penalty on those who refuse to believe. {Surah: Al An’am(07); Ayah #125} Allah’s grace that I'm blessed with deen of Allah, I’m Mohammed Umar Rao from India, I embraced Islam 6 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 know what is the truth .I shared my story with 2 brothers, Alhamdulillah, they were convinced that my decision and choice is best, they started reading Qur’an and also embraced it few days back. My Background:I come from a middle class orthodox Brahmin family; my parents worked in private firms (Mother: Teacher, Father: 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 nailed in me deeply. I was associated with RSS for 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 should not be heard at all. I used to go round the town visiting all temples to complete my worship everyday. I was liked, appreciated in family for being orthodox and encouraged to do more. My Meeting with Islam:In the summer, my mother asked me to work for a Muslim business firm, which I disagreed, 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 job. Meantime, my mother, sisters worked 2 months in part time 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 embraced Islam, I took this challenge to teach him a lesson claiming my religion is true and from there, I started doing comparative study with whatever common sense which Allah had blessed me then. By now, in the verge to know more about Islam, I started reading English translation of the Holy Qur’an (By: Abdullah Yousuf Ali). This changed my entire student life; I was stuck with fear, doubts, I realized the fact that whatever I’m doing is 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 of truth. I started questioning my parents, people around that who has seen God almighty to paint / make images of God, all answered me that none has seen God which is so true as it is mentioned in 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 that Vedas 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 a verse in the Qur’an, Al Baqarah (Chapter 2) which reads “If truth has come to you, Will you still follow footsteps of fools who went before?” and “We will not ask you about what they did, nor ask them about what you do , every soul has will get it has earned”. When I read this I was shocked to see something which I just questioned my mother last night. This ayah (verse) hit me right deep inside. I slowly stopped worshipping idols, and stopped doing Pooja (Editor’s note: A Hindu ritual for prayer), since shirk (Polytheism) is the only sin which will never be forgiven. I started practicing the teachings of Islam in secret in the beginning. There were few quotes from chapter Al Baqarah (Chapter 2) in which Allah says " There are few, who accept Islam wherever it profits them and not whole heartedly, these are hypocrites", Also chapter Al Maidah (Chapter 3) "I perfected your religion this day, I choose Islam for you, no other religion will be accepted by your Lord, Know that Allah is All wise”. I realized that for all the questions that I have in my mind, the answers are present in the Qur’an. By grace of Allah, I started conveying message of Allah at my home with little knowledge I had, I wanted to complete my B.E meantime, conveying the truth would make it easy in the long run for me and my family, but after my final year of diploma I was pushed to wall, then the time came where I had no choice but to quit 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, regular source of income. Alhamdulillah, Allah made our ways easy to be firm on truth. As Allah says in the Qur’an "If they say we believe, don't you think they will be tested?" Over a period, Alhamdulillah, Allah opened doors of opportunities for us, I had 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 shift and compromise my prayer. After quitting that job / mechanical profession for 1+ year, I did not get any job where I can perform 5 times prayer, Grace of Allah, I started working as faculty for 2000 rupees for a year and now I'm blessed with a better Job. By the Grace of Allah, Almighty Allah has chosen us, there's nothing more required. Muhammed Umar Rao 3:47:11 PM Posted By Mohammed Irshad Hussain Comments (9) Society Comments chittaranjan Saturday, October 28, 2006 4:30:12 PM What is it you want to say? What has brahmanism got to do with what u r saying? You mean to meant that some xtra spl because you were once brahmin? Nonsense.I am Hindu and Brahmin and strong supporter of RSS, but i never got the feelings of hate towards muslims like u had initially. U have some problems. Sorry kid. sud Saturday, October 28, 2006 4:31:20 PM My friend it is u r choice . The same way you did analysis on islam u did not do on Hinduism and vedas . Probably u could have got answers to many of u r questions . Pls understand that all religions r one and same . But we Hindus r more tolerant , educated .The surroundings in muslims r not good they love to kill . When u r Roman u do as they do . I have respect to ISlam but i never want to follow it .May lord Krishna bless u and u r sister . Irshad4u Saturday, October 28, 2006 4:57:47 PM Follow ture Just don't do what You r fore fathers are doing for name sake You may have heard the story of the woman who routinely cut the ends off each roast before placing it in a pan. One day her husband asked why she did so, and she responded that she didn't really know, it was something her mother had always done. The husband then asked the mother-in-law why she always cut the ends off a roast prior to placing it in the pan and she answered it was something she'd always watched her own mother do. Finally, the husband confronted the grandmother-in-law and again asked the purpose in cutting the ends off the roast. "Oh, that," replied the elderly woman. "My roast pan was small. I always had to cut the ends off to make it fit."Many of us routinely do things a certain way because we've always done it that way or we were taught to do something in a certain way and never considered change. We might be better served, however, if moment by moment we routinely questioned our actions, implementing improvements as necessary and continually forcing ourselves to think "outside the box" of how it has always been done. Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that life doesn't come in a box.And it doesn't need to be lived that way either. Bhagwad Geeta 7:20 The most popular amongst all the Hindu scriptures is the Bhagwad Geeta. Bhagwad Geeta mentions in Chapter 7, Verse 20, “Those whose intelligence has been stolen by material desires worship demigods” that is “Those who are materialistic, they worship demigods” i.e. besides the true God. lalluu Saturday, October 28, 2006 5:31:46 PM You converted at the tender age of 18, and before that you were a serious cadre of RSS for a few years. You must be a prodigy! vijay Saturday, October 28, 2006 5:32:13 PM Hi Md. Umar Rao, what is the point you are trying to make thru this blog? To me, it seems a story of "Bagal me Chhora, gao bhar dhindora. Like Sud mentioned, if you had looked at the Vedas or Geeta (if you had one at your former Brahminical place), you would have found the same things mentioned.No religion is different from any other in content. Try to understand this fact. Wish you a happier life anyway... INDIAN Saturday, October 28, 2006 5:52:30 PM MOHAMMED IRSHAD HUSSEIN IS MENTALLY RETARTED MAN. PEOPLES LIKE IRSHAD IS CANCER FOR THE SOCIETY. PLEASE NOTE "ULLU KO RAAT ME DHIKAI NAHE DETA USME SURAJ KA KYA DOSH HAI?" be_patriotic Saturday, October 28, 2006 6:01:08 PM What crap is this?What is the author trying to convey?You are misguided and you are not taught about the basics of Hinduism. You are one of many who mug up in the last minute and vomit in the exams. You do not understand fundamentals.I know you are dishonest. you had never been a hindu. By writing such blogs and wasting others time, you have disobeyed your religion and holy kuran.May allah bless you!FYI, I am a hindu and have always respected by muslim brothers and sisters. Do you? opinionblogs Saturday, October 28, 2006 6:33:05 PM If you are happy with Islam, be.But friend, your logic is just not right. You dont seem to me well versed with the principles of either religion. To make a wise decision you need to be sure of the spiritual aspects.And who are you to degrade hinduism? We can have a useless debate here, islam versus hinduism. The debate has existed for cenuries. But that isnt the point. Dont degrade any religion. We hindus are anyway better off without prodigals like you. K.Venugopal Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:11:41 PM Dear Muhammed Umar Rao (or should I be addressing this to Mohammed Irshad Hussain?), Anyway, here goes my question. Allah said: "I perfected your religion this day, I choose Islam for you, no other religion will be accepted by your Lord, Know that Allah is All wise”. Is Allah addressing the reader of the Quran, mankind at large or just Mohammad? Is Allah himself claiming that he is All wise or is it Mohammad praising his God? I feel Krishna is wiser than Allah. Krishna said there are many paths to Him. Allah chooses the path - does not give man the freedom to choose his path. Rao, re-convert to Hinduism! K.Venugopal Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:20:05 PM When Allah says, "I perfected your religion this day", does it mean that Allah did an imperfect job before? This can't be, how can God make mistakes? Such quotations from the Quran are illogical. Islam is on a weak wicket. K. Venugopal Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:23:39 PM "Those whom Allah (in His Plan) willeth to guide He openeth their breast to Islam; those whom He willeth to leave straying He maketh their breast close and constricted as if they had to climb up to the skies: thus doth Allah (heap) the penalty on those who refuse to believe."How can Allah show partiality? Quran appears to have caricatured Allah! K.Venugopal Saturday, October 28, 2006 9:32:32 PM Rao was an easy prey. He got swayed at an impressionable age. In Kerala there is a writer of national renowned - Kamala Suraiya. She converted to Islam in rather advanced years. Reports now suggest she is lamenting her decision. Which reminds me of the Bangladeshi author of Lajja. She is not very proud of Islam, is she? I say, let there be true secularism and democracy in Muslim societies. They would turn Hindu faster then you might anticipate. This is why Muslim society keeps its members in religious isolation and none of the over 50 Muslim countries are secular or democratic.