My journey to Islam
-
I am from a moderate Muslim country right beside India, called Bangladesh. Even though the common people are "moderate", the country had been maimed by radical Pakistani Muslims since the birth of Pakistan in 1947 and after the East wing of Pakistan(what is now Bangladesh) earned independence from the West Wing of Pakistan(what is now called Pakistan) after a bloody struggle, Bangladesh was formed. Only 33 years of independence has passed and the country is now infested with blood-thirsty mullahs. There's a Sharia-phile group called Jamaat-Islami-Bangladesh(similar to Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-Islami-Pakistan), which will do anything to establish "Sharia" in this small, peace-loving, timid country. It has already brainwashed a significant portion of the population and I happened to be a member of one such family.
Even though all of my 14 uncles and aunts and their densely populated families are activists for this radical group(I wish I could describe its atrocities, but my vocabulary fails me. Jamaat-Islam-Bangladesh is a significant impetus in my sacred voyage. If anyone of you is interested, ask a Bangladeshi who has seen/fought in our liberation war of 1971), my father is an atheist and my mother is a timid, religious woman. The bigotry of my family(uncles and aunts) was conspicuous to me even when I was young, so I never really thought of Islam to be a fascist religion. In fact, I never even thought of thinking of God and religion.
One day, someone handed me a book of Dr. Zakir Naik(the famous Indian scholar, who has the codices of all religions memorised). It wasn't tough for an ignorant like me to be swept by the sophistry of a clever guy like him. For the first time ever, I began to feel love for Islam and gained interest in religion as a whole. My euphoria was soon destroyed when my father handed me a book entitled "In God We Doubt- Confessions of a failed atheist" by a British agnostic called John Humphyrs. By this time, I also came upon a Bangladeshi website advocating Islamophobia and Atheism under the banner of secularism and rationalism. This staunchly made me realize my ignorance of Islam. In my confused state, I also read Professor Richard Dawkins' "The God Delusion" and my faith was almost blown to bits. I tried to fight their arguements by reading articles in sites like islamonline.net and readingslam.com but I came to a realisation that all those Islamic sites were powerful euphemisms for an extremely venomous and hate-mongering doctrine. But I couldn't agree with Dawkins that there was no God and no matter who said what, Islam was more reasonable than other religions. So I surrendered, not to God, but to blind faith.
Few months ago, I came across a Bangladeshi community blog(the link is in my signature) which acted as an uncensroed medium of self-expression for anyone with an internet connection. Apparently, the print and news media fell sick with politics. As a platform for free thought, the "Religion" section of the blog had many posts by atheists and Islamophobes as well as a peculiar Islamic scholar who promoted Islam but rejected many traditional practices(like singing, "al rajm", "Sharia is a divine system of state administration and we must establish it" etc.). What was more interesting is that he used an extensive amount of reference to Quran, Hadith and books of other Sharia supporting authors. So I emailed this man, Hasan Mahmud(those who don't know him-http//www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=d81a5112-a188-4290-87e9-1050b7c28db0) asking for credible translations for Quran. He replied quite fast and told me something about a "Reformist Translation" and urged me to check out "19.org". Due to his book, I had already developed a fondness towards him and I complied with his request.
The first thing I did was to download the Reformist Translation. I just hovered over the pages and grew quite irritated, I thought the translators were apologists with not even a tiny bit of credibility. It's not like I loved those stinking hadiths, but the Reformist Translation was too good to be true. The translators also seemed to be quite fond of some Rashad Khalifa, who, according to the diatribe of an atheist next door, claimed to be a Prophet like Mohammed. So I went to 19.org to learn more about this "idiotic cult" and found a debate between Ali Sina and one of the translators, Edip Yuksel. I've already seen Ali Sina at it before, so I took a look at the debate out of curiosity. One read of the long debate had done it for me- my idea of the "idiotic cult" turned on its head. Now, I believe it's the traditional Islam that's the "idiotic cult", not the "Quranists"(as the unappreciative people call them).
It all happened recently and I'm still ignorant. I hang around the "Quran only" sites, read the articles and select those which I like. I then reserve them for translation and I plan to post them in the blog that I frequent. Currently, I'm translating articles from the Reformist translation into Bengali and posting them in a popular Bangladeshi blog(my sig) where I observe the reaction of the people. Contrary to me expectations, the reaction is mixed. I guess the people have tired of fundamentalist/traditional Islam and not possessing the courage to renounce their religion, they're looking for reform. A lot of them(some of them are really good people, but religion is a damn sensitive subject to them) do react violently but I don't mind. Being a part of an extremely small minority theological movement, I often feel lonely. That's when I go to visit the 19.org forum but to my disappointment, it's quite inactive. I've heard of free-minds.org before but came here just today. I was quite surprised to see this forum active and was overjoyed to find two fellow Bangladeshis. I guess this will act as a powerful drive for me to keep my lone struggle(I don't know of any notable Quran only Muslim in my country) going.
-
peace,
Welcome to the forum.
Well done on translating the articles.
Check out www.StudyQuran.org for various Quran study resources
-
Peace,
Welcome brother, it seems like you've had a very similar journey to the rest of us.
I'm really happy that you are translating the articles into Bengali. I've found the Bengalis at my local masjid to be very receptive to the Qur'an only message, so having these translations would be a blessing.
-
Welcome to the Forum! Thank you so much for posting your story. I am so excited that there are other bengalis out there following God Alone path. Btw, I visited your website. Unfortunely, my bangla reading skills are very limited. I will certainly recommend your site to my family and friends. welcome
-
Welcome to the Forum! Thank you so much for posting your story. I am so excited that there are other bengalis out there following God Alone path. Btw, I visited your website. Unfortunely, my bangla reading skills are very limited. I will certainly recommend your site to my family and friends. welcome
Thanks! Great to find another Bangladeshi.
Btw, that's not my site. I just frequent it since that site is a powerful tool for propagating anything. It also happens to be the only site of our country which has absolutely no censorship. It's really a blessing, considering that people don't have the freedom of free speech and free thought in a society that claims itself to be "modern".
-
Thanks! Great to find another Bangladeshi.
Btw, that's not my site. I just frequent it since that site is a powerful tool for propagating anything. It also happens to be the only site of our country which has absolutely no censorship. It's really a blessing, considering that people don't have the freedom of free speech and free thought in a society that claims itself to be "modern".
Salam and welcome to this forum. It's always nice to find a fellow Bangladeshi who took the time to think about faith and spirituality and ask the hard questions.
DPeace,
Sarah
-
Welcome but dont get carried away by code 19 Groups. Read Quran and ponder Quran Alone.
Dont waste time in code 19 groups. They find some problem with Quran ayats as they themselves are problemetic.
If at all you are interested in numerology and can't get away with code 19 numerology just think as follows and seek forgiveness from GOD and feel satified that there is only one GOD (The worst Mundane numerologist supports only one God ( 19 = 1+ 9 = 10 = 1+0 = 1 God).i.e Creater,Almighty,Protector and He has countless names as the need arises. Again they limit the names of GOD with numbers.The numbering people will become numb immediately.
"OH Lord Forgive me for writing this... I have forgotten you while writing this mail, satan for a momement distracted me... "
Love
Jango O0 -
Peace be upon you, my sisters and brothers) sun group
I just want to write few words about myself...
I am from Russian Federation and ethnically I am Cossack...and Orthodox Christian)
so...3 years ago i started to search for rela truth...and began read a lot about Islam...but it was all concebtrated on hadithes... yuck
but i saw big truth inside of it!!!and I became Muslim in august 2007) Glory to God!
some month later i found site Submission and was really suprised that there was my ideas about God and true religion! bravoand now I am Submiter of God!
a lot of traditional sunnis don't want to understand me...and called me eretic))
but I am glad that i have a chance see such many people with the same views)Thank you all dear O0
-
Peace be upon you, my sisters and brothers) sun group
I just want to write few words about myself...
I am from Russian Federation and ethnically I am Cossack...and Orthodox Christian)
so...3 years ago i started to search for rela truth...and began read a lot about Islam...but it was all concebtrated on hadithes... yuck
but i saw big truth inside of it!!!and I became Muslim in august 2007) Glory to God!
some month later i found site Submission and was really suprised that there was my ideas about God and true religion! bravo
and now I am Submiter of God!
a lot of traditional sunnis don't want to understand me...and called me eretic))
but I am glad that i have a chance see such many people with the same views)
Thank you all dear O0Peace,
Respectfully.welcome to the forum sister and may The Exalted God The Most Merciful bless you and give you even more Strenght, Knowledge, patience and Wisdom, Thank God, for He The Most High ha sguided you, Thank God.
Peace.
-
Peace,
Respectfully.welcome to the forum, brother and may The God The Exalted, The Most Powerful bless you and make you the best believer amongst us, God willing.
I also have a friend who is from Bangladesh and he is also leaning more towards following just The Quran but likes to debate too much sometimes,lool, which i like, it takes us hours to reach an agreement,lool,lol.Peace.
-
welcome to the forum! welcome
-
welcome
-
I come in the name of Jesus. I am a born again christian. how are you
-
I live in Melbourne
-
where abouts? Australia is the best couintry to live in without a doubt
-
-
where abouts? Australia is the best couintry to live in without a doubt
That all depends on who you talk to.
