Why Did They Become Muslims

8
Dr. ’UMAR ROLF FREIHERR VON EHRENFELS
(Austrian)
(Rolf Freiherr (baron) von Ehrenfels is the only son of Prof. Dr.
Baron Christian Ehrenfels, who is known as the founder of Gestalt
psychology all over the world. He belongs to a well-known family.
He was only a small child when he felt a growing concern for the
orient and began to study the Islamic religion. His sister Imma von
Rodmesrhof writes about this inclination of her brother’s in detail
in a book of hers, which was published in Lahore in 1953. At a very
young age, Rolf travelled in Turkey, in Albania, in Greece, and in
Yugoslavia, and joined prayers in mosques although he was a
Christian. Eventually, the warm feelings of closeness that he had
been harbouring towards Islam resulted in his embracing Islam in
1927, from then on he chose the name ’Umar for himself. In 1932
he visited India, and published a book entitled ‘The Place of
Woman in Islam’. When the Germans invaded Austria during the
Second World War, Rolf fled to India. Accepted and supported by
Akbar Haydar, he carried on anthropological studies in Assam,
was appointed as a professor of anthropology for the University of
Madras in 1949, and was awarded with a gold medal by the ‘Royal
Asiatic Society’, which was located in Bengal. His books were also
published in the Urdu language.)
You ask me why I became a Muslim. In the following lines I
shall give an account of the factors that formed the cause of my
becoming a Muslim and realizing that Islam is a true religion:
1) Islam contains the good aspects of all the world’s religions
known to us. All religions are intended for men’s living in peace
and tranquility. Yet no other religion has managed to teach it to
people as explicitly as Islam does. No other religion has been
successful in imbuing with such deep love towards our Creator and
towards brothers of the same faith.
2) Islam enjoins a perfect submission to Allâhu ta’âlâ in a mood
of peace and tranquility.
3) A retrospective look into history will automatically expose
the fact that the Islamic religion is the final true, heavenly religion
and that no other religion will appear.
4) Muhammad ‘alaihis-salâm’, who communicated the Qur’ân
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