By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net
An 18-year-old boy is moving around in the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad. He comes across a book stall, moves up and after having a look at some books he picks up “Hindu Jaat ka Utthan aur Patan.” He fillips through the book for a few minutes and buys it, oblivious of the fact the book is going to change his life altogether.
That 18-year-old, class XII student is now 32-year-old Md. Rashid, a research scholar, doing Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia.
Authored by Rajni Kant Shastri in 1940, the book talked about Hindu religion and Hindu society and the ‘wrongs’ that have crept into it. Shastri had talked about characters of Hindu deities like Ram, Krishna, Shiv and others. He had suggested that the Hindu society would be become better if some ‘wrongs’ were removed.
At the end of the book the author had briefly talked about Islam and pointed out some features of this religion which attract people to it. Rajni Kant Shastri was of the view that mainly because of the concept of oneness of God people get fascinated towards Islam.
Rashid, then someone else, loved the book and read it sincerely.
“The book increased curiosity in me to read and know about Islam,” says Rashid sitting in a human rights group office.
“Someone gave me “Islam Perveshika,” the Hindi translation of “Towards Understanding Islam” of Maulana Syed Abul Ala Maududi,” he says.
After reading the book he came much closer to Islam. Now he was making up his mind – to convert or not. He decided to choose the first option.
But it was not easy for him to become Muslim.
“I met some people in Allahabad, my hometown, and expressed my desire. I told them to make me Muslim by making me recite the Kalimah. No one was ready for it,” says Rashid who did not think that the path would be so difficult.
“Someone told me to meet Ahmad Bukhari of Shahi Jama Masjid of Delhi. They said he will make you recite the Kalimah and he will also give you a certificate that is recognized,” adds the man.
On Friday, December 9, 1995, without informing his family, he came to Delhi and met Ahmad Bukhari. “He asked me some questions and then made me recite the Kalimah and gave me a certificate,” he says.
When you broke the news on your family, did they welcome you or shut the door on you?
“Neither,” he says adding they were worried lot. They tried to persuade him and convince him not to do so. They continued counseling him.
Then one day he left home as well as his hometown. For three years he did not inform his family.
Soon after he came in contact with Muslim society he found himself in a sort of maize of faith – Deobandi, Barelvi, Ahle Hadees… He found people were not giving him true teaching of Islam, rather they were talking about their own school of thought.
A book stall in Kumbh Mela
Then he thought he should learn Arabic and read the original source of Islam to know what Islam actually is.
For this purpose, he sought admission in a madrasa.
But the madrasa authorities first denied him entry. They said their institution may face closure. He asked about the process. He was told to bring court certificate of his conversion. Then he went to Allahabad and got a certificate from the Allahabad High Court.
For two years he read at a madrasa in Azamgarh and then three years at another madrasa in Siddharth Nagar. “I studied Quran and then finally concluded that Islam is the best religion” he says.
But he is sad that today Islam and Muslims are two different things. Islam does not reflect from the Muslims, individually or collectively. Reason? He says Muslims do not study Quran. If they read Quran, all problems of the Muslim society will get solved.
Why are Muslims being targeted in the name of terrorism and why are they being branded as terrorists? Rashid has an answer to it also.
“What is happening in India is part of the global anti-Islam phenomenon. Other religions think that if Islam took centre stage then they will be neglected and sidelined. They fear from Islamic system that is based on the laws of Almighty which is all justice and equality” says Rashid.
What pushed him towards Islam is now the subject of his research. He is doing Ph.D. in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia. The topic is Concept of God in Islam and Hindu religion – a Comparative Study.
[Photos by Nishita & Girish]