Why Did They Become Muslims

and had been looking for a man to entrust herself to. The Second
World War had ended, and a programme called ‘Dear Sir’ on a
British radio announced the following request of a poor young
woman: “I am a young woman. I lost my husband in the war. I
have no one to care for me now. I need protection. I am ready to
be the second wife of a good natured man and to carry his first wife
on my head. All I want is to put an end to this loneliness.”
This shows that the Islamic polygamy is intended to satisfy a
need. It is only a permission, not a commandment. And today,
when unemployment and poverty are making the rounds over the
entire world, there is next to no place left where it is practised.
These thoughts completely eradicated the possibility that I would
any longer look on polygamy as a fault in Islam.
Then, with the presumption of having found another defect, I
asked my Muslim friend, “How can the five daily prayers be
adjusted to our life-styles today? Wouldn’t so many prayers be too
much?” He smiled, and asked me, “Sometimes I hear you playing
the piano. Are you interested in music?” “Very much,” was my
answer. “All right. Do you practise daily?” “Of course. As soon as
I am back home from work, I play the piano at least two hours
every day.” Upon this, my Muslim friend said, “Why do you find it
too much to pray five times daily, which would take you only half
an hour or forty-five minutes in all? As you might lose your
proficiency in playing the piano if you did not have practice,
likewise the less one thinks of Allâhu ta’âlâ or thanks Him for His
blessings by prostrating oneself, the farther away will the way
leading to Him become. On the other hand, praying daily means
making progress step by step in the right way of Allâhu ta’âlâ.” He
was so right!
There was no obstacle to my accepting Islam now. I embraced
the Islamic religion with all my soul and conscience. As you see I
did not choose it at first sight and without thinking at all; on the
contrary, I became a Muslim after examining Islam minutely,
looking for the possible faults in it and finding their answers, and
reaching the conclusion that it is an immaculate religion. Now I
boast about being a Muslim.
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