❞ كتاب Why I Chose Islam ❝ ⏤ محمد العمرى

I was born to staunch Catholic Christian parents. Even
from my youngest days, my father sometimes took me
along with him when he went to preach, it was quite ob‐
vious that he wanted me to succeed him in his profes‐
sion. By the time I reached grade twelve, I could preach
the Gospels in my own way. In college, I often met my
Protestant classmates and discussed the differences in
our faiths and the performance of rituals.
By the time I completed the first year in college, I was
sufficiently grounded in the knowledge of the Christian
Faith as held by the Catholic Church. I was given a schol‐
arship from the Church funds and in return for the help I
received, I was required to receive special coaching in
understanding parts of the Holy Book, under the Chief
Priest of the Church who loved to teach me very much
and was very intimately attached to me.
Having appeared in the first group for my intermediate
course I used to sit working at his subjects till late at
night. One night when all were asleep and I was ab‐
sorbed in my studies an idea suddenly struck my mind
to examine the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, the basic
formula of the Christian Faith. The question how god ex‐

ists in three persons, and yet has a single divine nature, a
single will and be of one substance arose in my mind.
My failure to reconcile my belief in the Trinity with the
reasoning of the science of logic, created a mental rest‐
lessness in me. Days passed on and many a time, I
thought of asking my father to help me in solving the
problem which puzzled my mind but I knew that my fa‐
ther would never appreciate the least doubt in the dog‐
matic belief of the Catholic School. However, one day
when I found my father in a happy mood and asked him
to explain the Holy Trinity...he finally said:
“In matters of faith one has to stop reasoning...this
doctrine is beyond the grasp of human reason. One
should believe in the doctrine only by one’s heart and
mind!”
This reply from my father upset me to a great ex‐
tent...all my thinking got centered in the question which
had become a definite problem to puzzle my mind fur‐
ther and I wondered saying: “Is this the foundation upon
which the huge edifice of the Christian faith is built? Is
the basis of my faith only a matter of blind following of
some dictated belief which can never stand reasoning or
the independent scrutiny by the dispassionate and im‐
partial arguments from the clean conscience?”
I became extremely worried and made up my mind to
blindly believe in the Trinity.

One day one of our senior lecturers was sitting alone in
his room and I entered with his permission and asked
him if he could help me to solve something which to me
was a perplexing problem. He very kindly asked me
what it was. I asked him to explain to me how God, a
single being, can exist simultaneously as three distinct
persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Spirit?!
The senior lecturer smiled and said: “Is it that you do
not like my stay in this college?” I asked him: “Why sir?”
He said: “What do you think the college authorities who
are staunch Catholics will do with me, if someone in‐
forms them that I discuss in my private room things op‐
posed to the Christian faith in general? Will they keep me
on the staff of the College any longer? If you want to dis‐
cuss anything here, you must confine your discussion to
the subject of your studies in the College!”
Thereafter, I made an appointment with him to see him
in his house.
On Sunday when I met the senior lecturer he first asked
me as to what made me inquire into the Doctrine of Trin‐
ity. I said that I wanted to know how far the doctrine
stood to reasoning.
He smiled and said, “Why don’t you ask any one of our
priests?”
I said: “I have asked them but they say it is a matter of
belief or faith and it should not be subjected to any logic

or philosophy. This has upset me. This has raised the
question in me, if what I believe in is unreasonable and
illogical, why should I subject myself to any blind follow‐
ing? Is God so unjust to expect man to believe in a doc‐
trine about Himself which no human brain can ever rea‐
sonably conceive? I request you, Sir, to somehow give me
some method of arguing out the possibility of such exis‐
tence as the doctrine of Trinity wants us to believe in!”
The senior lecturer smiled and said: ‘Dear Thomas,
suppose you want me to prove by some mathematical
formula how water can remain water and the same time
be fire, or how a stone can be a stone and at the same
time be water too, how can I do it? I do not think any
sensible man on earth can ever conceive such a possibil‐
ity...how the Ever living God who being the Ever living,
can also at the same time be a mortal! (i.e. be a man to
suffer death at the hands of the other mortals?) And how
the same mortal being at the same time be the Absolute
Immortal God? It is a problem which our priests want us
to believe and we hav

He continued: ‘The only thing is that we Christians are
shut out of the vast sources of knowledge about the truth
and of the higher factor in matters of religion which are
available outside our own fold, by damning every non‐
Christian as the Devil’s work. We Christians, Mr. Tho‐
mas, in our madness to swell up our ranks have played
such a disgraceful role that a scholar like Sir Dennison

Ross had to helplessly disclose truth about this in his
foreword to the translation of the Quran by George Sale.”
I was amazed to hear the arguments of the senior lec‐
turer who was himself known as a Catholic, and at the
same time I was very much encouraged to know that my
doubt about the unreasonableness of the doctrine of Trin‐
ity was something which had made a highly educated
and enlightened mind like the senior lecturer of Mathe‐
matics to enquire into it. I was much benefited by the dis‐
cussion with the senior lecturer for I came to know ar‐
guments justifying the doubt created in my mind.
My study of the matter in the ‘Islamic Literature’ and
the translation of the Quran opened my eyes to many
great and very important factors that effect human life on
earth. Once I visited the senior lecturer in his house and
to my amazement I found him possessing a great amount
of literature on Islam!
I further asked him: “May I know sir, if you have em‐
braced the faith of the Muslims?”
He replied: “Do not worry yourself about my personal
choice!”
I took the copy of the translation of the Quran by
George Sale and read the introduction by Sir E. Dennison
Ross. The introduction needs to be read with special at‐
tention. Sir Ross said:

“For many centuries the acquaintance which the major‐
ity of Europeans possessed of Mohammedanism was
based almost entirely on the distorted reports of fanati‐
cal Christians which led to the discrimination of a mul‐
titude of gross calumnies. What was good in Moham‐
medanism was entirely ignored and what was not good
in the eyes of Europe was exaggerated or misinterpreted.
The unity of God and the simplicity of his creed was
probably a more potent factor in the spread of Islam
than the sword of the ghaziz.” (G. Sale’s translation of
the Koran – Introduction)
This statement of the great Christian scholar of interna‐
tional repute, created in me the thirst to know the origi‐
nal teachings of Islam especially about the Islamic con‐
cept of God.
About four years passed away and by this time I knew
the contents of the Quran. Many things had aroused my
attention. I had discussed many doubtful points with the
senior lecturer whom I found to have read the Quran
several times with a better and more critical view. I was
now longing to meet some Muslim scholar to cross exam‐
ine him about certain doubts about the Islamic Faith.

 : A story of a priest who reverted to Islam, it is based on a True Story.