Former Senior chaplain, St. Mary’s Church, Quetta PAKISTAN)

M. H. DURRANI
by: Admin
(Former Senior chaplain, St. Mary’s Church, Quetta PAKISTAN)

Forty years ago, at a very young age, I became a Christian under the influence of a Mission school. I spent most of my life under the Church of England as an Anglican Priest. Islam came to me as does the spring comes to the brown earth after a dark winter. And I came to the religion of my forefathers that is ISLAM.

For my return to the fold, the cause is an inspiration through a vision wherein I have had the personal blessing of the Holy Prophet (saw) I praise Allah, for his Holy Prophet and am overjoyed to find the Prophet (saw) who restored to man his dignity and the freedom of action.

A change of heart comes from the Almighty God. In the fact, without His guidance all our learning, all our searching and all our yearning to find the truth may lead us astray.

We need conviction and no argument, how skillful, or eloquent, impassioned, leaned, penetrating; will ever make a man feel satisfied unless he has the proof within his own soul. The only way to have it is to receive it as a gift from God.

The point I specially want to emphasize is that each one of us has a guiding vision; if we follow it faithfully, it will bring us satisfaction. At one time or the other, whether it be during early years or in the prime of life or in old age, everyone is blessed with some kind of dream, a vision or an inspiration, and ideal, a sense of a finder pointing at him, a voice calling upward to higher life: “ This is the way, walk right in it.”. We may not be able to explain it but God fulfils himself in many ways: He sends to each one of us a vision which he can understand.

Can’t you remember such an experience when in some moment of depression and disillusionment your whole soul cried out in despite against the futility, the emptiness, and the dreary monotony of your existence? “Has God created me” you have said to yourself, “for nothing better than this to get up in the morning and go to work to serve the Bully Ragging employer who gets the best out of his men, or to slave at a desk or in a shop, to face the endless fret and worry of how to make both ends meet? Surely, life has something more satisfying, some independence of character, some capacity for high achievement, but it is all being crushed out of me by the tyranny of unkind circumstances”

And then, amidst the dark hour of your depression, there appears suddenly and gleaming star of hope. You caught a vision of what your life was meant to be and might be. Through some verses of the Holy Quran, through some preceptor, God spoke to your soul. He opened your eyes to see the inner meaning and purpose of your work. He showed you that the routine, the drudgery, the hardship, which seemed to be slowly squeezing life out of you, were in reality His instruments for the formation of you character, His training for the unselfish service of you fellowmen. What a wonderful difference it makes to a man’s whole outlook when he grabs the great truth that life is a vocation, a cell to make his little corner of the world a better, brighter, sweeter happier place. What a power there is in simple goodness, to draw men heavenward: words may be misunderstood, and actions misinterpreted, but the light that radiates from a soul trying to live up the highest that he knows, touches and blesses all who come near him. That is the debt we owe to the Holy Prophet (saw).

I venture to say there is not a single convert who does not owe his gratitude to Prophet Muhammad (saw) for his love for him/her, his help, guidance, inspiration, and as the example of a noble person whom God in His great love sent to us to follow.

Again, we may have all experienced, not once but many times, the same word, same example, the same deep inward inspiration, arousing us out of our lethargy and indifference, awakening within us the spirit of divine discontent, bidding us to gird up our loins to journey forth on the road that leads to God. Praise be to Allah, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

Homeward we are often led along the strangest of ways; unexpected turnings take us back to bygone days. Suddenly we go astray, no matter how straight the path appears, and we find we have struck the road of forgotten years.

I eventually took up the study of the Holy Prophet’s life. I realized it was a great sin not to acknowledge that Holy man of God who established the Kingdom of God among His people who were treacherous warriors, idol worshippers and the doers of all kinds of disgraceful things. He not only changed their modes of thought, their very habits and morals, but also brought them under one banner, one law, one religion, one culture, one civilization and one form of government. A nation which had not produced a single great man worth the name of centuries gave birth, under the influence and guidance, to thousands of noble souls who went forth to far off corners of the globe to preach and to teach the principles of Islam; morality and the best code of life.

He fulfilled his mission not through any worldly lure, oppression or tyranny, but by his captivating manners, his endearing moral personality and his convincing words. With his noble and gentle behavior he befriended even the worst of his enemies. He won the hearts of the people through love.

Can anyone imagine a higher example of self sacrifice fellow-feeling and a tender heart than that of the Holy Prophet (saw) who ruined his own happiness for the sake of others, while those very people for whose betterment ht strove and suffered to the utmost, stoned him, abused him, banished him and gave him no peace in exile too, and in spite of all this, he refused to abstain from striving for their well being?

Can any sincere person undergo so much for a false cause? Can any dishonest, speculator and visionary exhibit such firmness and determination for his ideal as to stick to this guns to the very last and remain unruffled and unperturbed in the face of dangers and tortures of every conceivable description when a whole country rises up in arms against him?

This faith, this perseverance and this resolution with which the Holy Prophet (saw) led his movement to ultimate success, is therefore an eloquent proof of the supreme truth of his cause. Had there been the slightest touch of doubt and uncertainty in his heart, he could never have been able to brave uncertainty in his heart. He could never have been able to brave the storm which continued in all its fury for twenty-one long years.

Which more proof of perfect honesty of purpose, uprightness of character and sublimity of soul can there be? Who else can be more truthful of a person than he who received such unique gifts in sublime manner and out rightly declared the sources of all his enlightenment and inspiration? All these factors lead to irresistible conclusion that such a man was a true Messenger of God, why should I have any doubt then? Such was our Holy Prophet Muhammad (saw). He was a prodigy of extraordinary merits, a paragon of virtue and goodness, a symbol of truth and veracity, a great Apostle of God, His Messenger to the entire world. His life and thoughts, his truth and straight forwardness, this piety and goodness, his character and morals, his ideology and achievements all stand as an unimpeachable proof of His Prophet hood. Any human being who studies ‘without bias’ the Holy Prophet’s life and teaching, will testify that verily he was the true Prophet of God, and the Qur’an the Book which he brought for mankind, is the true Book of God. No ‘unbiased’ and ‘serious’ seeker after truth can escape this conclusion!

I know this is getting long, but in the end I would like to say to my Muslim brothers and sisters and to the non-Muslims that please read up the life (seerah) of the Prophet Muhammad (saw). May Allah (swt) shower his blessings on all of us, Ameen
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