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SHAHADA:

Declaration of Faith

“La illaha illALLAH, Muhammadur Rasul ALLAH”

“There is no God but ALLAH

Muhammad is the Messenger of ALLAH.”

I TOOK MY SHAHADA IN NOVEMBER OF 1994

during the weekly meeting of SALAM, which is a Sacramento, California association of Muslims. The act of saying Shahada was for me the culmination of several years of reading about ISLAM, speaking with Muslims and serious contemplation. To me, it was a serious decision that would have an impact on the rest of my life, so I accepted the faith only after much careful deliberation.

There were many things that attracted me to ISLAM. One thing that impressed me about Muslims was that so many stand up and fight for what they believe is right, and against what is wrong. Day after day in the newspaper my attention was attracted by stories of Muslims in various countries fighting, and becoming shahids for what they believed. The fearlessness with which they did it was not understandable to me prior to entering ISLAM. It seemed almost superhuman. In the nineteen eighties, day after day I read with astonishment as various poor, uneducated, often disorganized groups of Afghanis took on the largest and most ruthless military machine in the world. I can remember reading articles by various military analysts and strategic foreign policy experts that stated unequivocally that the Soviet Union could not be removed from Afghanistan, and that it was only a matter of time before the Soviet military would complete mopping up the guerrillas in the mountains. By all known paradigms of warfare, the Soviets could not be defeated. The guerrillas were composed of tribes that were divided among sectarian, political, and linguistic lines, but they were united by an unshakable faith in ALLAH Subhanhu wa ta'ala, and an indomitable belief that their faith required them to oppose the communist government that had been imposed from outside. Despite the liberal use by the Russians of chemical weapons, land mines, and other weapons of terror, the Afghanis could not be pacified. In what is perhaps the greatest military miracle of modern times, the Russians were defeated and forced to pull out. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the man most associated with the disintegration of the Soviet empire, would later attribute his rise to the political malaise resulting from the Afghani quagmire.

The main thing that attracted me to ISLAM, though, was its pure monotheism. Although raised in a Christian home, I had never accepted the idea of worshipping a man or accepting that God had taken man’s form. Whenever I had problems, I prayed to a transcendent God, not to, or through, any intercessors. Despite endless attempts by family members and concerned friends, I was never able to accept doctrines that varied with my sense of a single, inconceivable deity. This conception made me uncomfortable in the various churches that I visited, and when I dared to open my mouth and express my understanding, what I said was not welcomed. I had begun to despair that anyone or group believed in a single, ineffable deity. When I began to learn about ISLAM, to my surprise I found other people who believed about God just as I had always understood Him.

Another thing that attracted me to ISLAM was the idea of brotherhood and sisterhood. The idea of an ummah based upon mutual faith and a shared ethical system seemed far superior than the usual human alliances based on region, language, or race. I was very impressed with salah in mosques where brothers and sisters gather themselves, having come from various corners of the globe, representing multiplicities of race and language. Here was accomplished the ideal of diversity which so many mouth but do not practice. This is not to say that I found all Muslims completely free of racism or ethnocentrism. Many Muslims fall short of the ideal. But I found that the tendency in ISLAM was against such ways of thinking, and toward the principal of universal brotherhood and sisterhood. (I, of course, am excluding those who proclaim ISLAM but actually have maintained their addiction to the poison of racial hatred. These people are almost universally denounced by the Muslim community.)

Prior to my formal acceptance of the faith, I had begun to adopt many of the behavioral norms of ISLAM. One at a time, I adopted various changes to my lifestyle. First, I put aside alcohol. Though alcohol had never been a large part of my life, like most Americans, I participated in drinking as an element of social gatherings or as a social activity in itself. Like most of my countrymen, I’ve become drunk numerous times, and considered it to be a way of letting loose of one’s inhibitions. Nevertheless, through reading a translation of the QUR’AN I became convinced that it was God’s will that alcohol not be indulged in. Setting aside this vice was easy for me because unlike so many, I had no physical compulsion to drink. I ceased drinking only because I believed it was God’s will and therefore by definition was wrong, not because I intellectually understood that the intake of alcohol was clearly destructive. I thought that for people like me who could control their intake, it was at the worst an innocuous activity and probably was beneficial in many ways. Nevertheless, over time, I came to see that there was great benefit in abandoning drinking. At social get-togethers of family and friends, I observed the impact that drinking had on others. The level of intellectual discourse dropped precipitously in correlation to the amount of intoxicants imbibed. The verbiage used declined to monosyllabic utterances, often obscene. The effect on others was such that they became combative and abusive, while others dropped their sexual inhibitions and mused about and sometimes acted upon the urgings of adulterous lust. Although this was the same world that I participated in throughout my adult life, because I was equally under the influence of the damaging liquid, I had never observed these things. I began to research and found that alcohol was associated in an overwhelming number of crimes committed. Other studies indicated that alcohol played an equally important role in extramarital affairs. In fact, I soon came to see that along with almost every vice, sat the ugly slosh of the terrible tasting drink.

I got to know fairly well a few alcoholics that were friends of my family. The devastation caused by their drinking, the drunk driving, the physical and emotional abuse of their family members, or the deleterious impact on their health, was severe. Previously, I had been programmed to fault the alcoholic for an inability to control him or herself. My thinking on this changed, however. I came to see that in any group of people, there are some who are incapable of controlling their intake of alcohol. Thus, it is insufficient to blame the individual in a society that overwhelmingly encourages its people to drink. By tolerating alcohol, the society was in effect condemning both alcoholics and those around them to great trauma and suffering. This, for me, was a revelation, and produced a revolution in my way of thinking. I had achieved a new perspective on the world. Additionally, I became sensitive to the ubiquitous campaign of those who market alcohol to entice people to indulge themselves, especially the young.

Similarly, I then stopped gambling. Again, gambling was something that I had engaged in throughout my life. So much so, that on a point of disagreement with anyone, I was likely to challenge with “Do you want to bet?”. I had participated in various casino style games, but found myself most attracted to sports betting. In my case, I was more often than not a winner and thus looked forward to the weekly football schedules so I could pick up a little extra money. Nevertheless, I became convinced through my reading of the QUR’AN that gambling was not acceptable to ALLAH (s.w.t). Again, I rationally didn’t understand the prohibition of gambling, but I accepted it. To the extent that the Quranic guidance was really God’s word, then there must be benefit in avoiding it. Again, I was soon blessed with the gift of a new perspective. I began to watch with sadness as poor people spent much of the little that they had on the lottery. I began to note the poverty, suffering, and degradation (and alcohol) that appeared linked with casinos and gambling.

A poignant event for me was witnessing the downfall of one of my professional colleagues who I looked up to with much respect. He was outwardly someone who was very much in control of his life. He was a person who carried himself with grace and style. In addition to his professional achievements, he had recently married a woman with whom he was very much in love. His only character flaw that I was aware of was a fascination with easy money or get rich quick schemes, which he would talk about at any opportunity. One day my friend failed to show up to work, something which was out of character for him. After one week of not showing up, nor calling in, his boss telephoned to inquire what had happened. Our boss spoke with his wife who informed him that she had no idea where her husband was and did not care. In fact, she was seeking a divorce. Then she explained that her husband had gotten into gambling. After a few big wins, he had lost all of his gains. Then, unbeknownst to his wife, he borrowed the maximum against all of their credit cards. He put the money on one roll of the dice. And he lost. Then, more desperate, he proceeded to cash out their joint savings including her life savings and inheritance. He took these funds up to Lake Tahoe and put it on one roll of the dice. He lost again. He followed this up by selling his car and other valuables for cash, with the intent of winning back the money he had previously lost. Predictably he lost again. Then he cashed out his pension and took it to the casino, and left that pile of money with the casino owners as well. I never saw my friend again. Many months later, a mutual acquaintance ran into him on a downtown street. He was unkempt, with dirty clothes, and a face that appeared twenty to thirty years older. He had a blank stare and no trace of his usual warmth or friendliness. He asked for a quarter. Like the stories of Achilles or Samson, here was a great man who had been brought low by one fatal vulnerability.

To see someone’s life so rapidly collapse shocked me. After this, I was no longer able to look upon gambling with such equanimity. Entertainment and pastimes should not result in the destruction of people’s lives. These events only further confirmed to me that the moral instruction of the QUR’AN contained wisdom that transcended my own understanding. I began to perceive the significance of the saying that God’s greatest gift to mankind was the criterion of determining right and wrong. Like drops of moral rain on ethically parched soil, I soaked up all I could read. I found that to the extent that I applied the teachings of ISLAM, my life, and by extension my family and society, were benefited.

To other seemingly insoluble problems, ISLAM offers solutions. To spiritually empty materialism, ISLAM shows the other worldly light of infinity. ISLAM teaches that the treasures and possessions which we seek here are meaningless in the end. Those things that we fear, are not to be feared. The material carrots and sticks which motivate people and divert them from having to think about more profound things like the meaning of life, are of little interest to a Muslim. Thus Muslims stand up for things, when no one else is able to stand; and fight against things that others through fear simply accept.

High levels of crime are another intractable Western phenomenon. While experts suggest various methods of mitigating the problem including increased imprisonment, education, job training, or psychological treatment, ISLAM proffers a simple medicine and achieves a level of justice in society that is widely recognized and admired. The simple reality is that Western societies tolerate a high level of social victimization resulting from criminal activity. For a Muslim, it is inconceivable to accept such misbehavior and

suffering. The application of the Sharia, which prescribes corporal and capital punishment for certain offenses subject to very strict conditions, with heavy doses of compassion and mercy, has resulted in levels of criminality in many Islamic societies several orders of magnitude lower than that experienced by Americans. Westerners have made a very human problem complex, while ISLAM offers a simple, and very humane solution.

My experience since becoming a Muslim has been wonderful. My family, friends and colleagues have been mostly curious about ISLAM and question me about my reasons for accepting the faith. Those few contentious arguments that have resulted have usually been based on misconceptions and stereotypes about ISLAM. As those misconceptions are cleared away by information, the views of my acquaintances about ISLAM have become generally favorable. And many that I know have come to speak with admiration about the reasonableness and goodness of many Islamic principals. I have also had interesting discussions with immigrants from Islamic communities. My acceptance of ISLAM has been welcomed by them, and for many it has confirmed their belief in the universal attractiveness of the faith. On the other hand, I have encountered many who immigrated from Islamic societies to the West seeking material advancement and the enjoyment of tantalizing treats that were forbidden at home. In their minds ISLAM represented old, tired, tradition that they sought to leave behind. To them, the acceptance of ISLAM by someone like me, an educated Western professional, is utterly beyond comprehension and apparently has created some disturbance in their mode of thinking.

Additionally, I have seen other benefits to Muslims of Westerners who have accepted ISLAM. We come with fresh, different, perspectives. We have little patience for the mistreatment of women. We are only interested in the ethics that are fundamental to the faith, based on the QUR’AN and Sahih Hadiths, and not resulting from traditional understanding, interpretations, or practice. Those of us who come to ISLAM ask basic, fundamental questions like why do we do this or that? Such questions are healthy for a community. It is quite interesting that many times there are no good or easy answers to the questions that we ask, leading others to examine their own practices and thus renew their own faith.

Saying Shahada was the greatest event that ever happened to me. InshaALLAH countless numbers of my compatriots are going to receive the guidance and share in the experience that I have had. Salaam.