Mahdi Bray tells his story saying
during my studying days in my collage, a
Pakistani friend gave me a copy of
English translated Qur'an.
It was covered with a plastic bag and he
told me: this Book will help you.
I’ll give it to you but promise
,,me with one thing
so what did he promised
him? and how did he repent
from Christianity to Islam ..?
I was a Christian, that’s true. I lived my childhood in a system
seemed to be like the apartheid in South Africa.
And though I was a Christian, they separated between black
and white people in the church as black Christians wasn’t
accepted.
This racism had a big influence on my as a child. My house
used to be thrown with rocks by a racist group who was
against the presence of black people in the city. Due to that
my whole life has all become about social integrity and I’ve
visited many places looking for justice.
The civil rights movement in the church, African Nationalism,
Left Socialists and others. Finally, I started thinking about
capitalism when I started my work in Rock and Roll music
I’ve learned many things by joining these
organizations. Even though, I felt an empty
space in my heart, and this space ended
when I was working in rock music with
Rock and Roll stars.
I’ve got a lot of money and I had an
enormous fortune.
. Still, my deeps stayed empty
during my studying days in my collage, a Pakistani friend gave
me a copy of English translated Qur'an. It was covered with a
plastic bag and he told me: this Book will help you. I’ll give it to
you but promise me with one thing; wash your hands before
reading it and put in a clean place, don’t enter the bathroom
while having it and don’t left it or put it in the floor.
And I promised him so. He also gave me “Yusuf Ali”
translations for Qur'an meanings and I took it with me in all
the places for about seven years.
When I was in my job in music,
I used to read it from time to
another,,,
but it’s words hadn’t passed
through my heart yet.
In a day in 1972, I stood before the mirror and I looked at
myself remembering that little child. I started thinking with the
things my parents have taught me. Honesty, integrity,
respecting women and modesty, I lost them all, my heart was
totally void but somehow it was missing something. So
I opened Yusuf Ali translation for Qur'an meanings, opened
Surah number 55, Arrahman
, and there I read verse seven which says:
َ ‫ض َع ْال ِم‬
]7 :‫ان} [الرحمن‬
َ ‫يز‬
َ ‫اءر َف َع َها َو َو‬
َ ‫{ َوال َّس َم‬
And the Firmament has He raised high, and He has set up the
)Balance) of Justice
felt like stones falling over my head…!
There I knew that, justice doesn’t come from
Martin Luther King, not from Chi Guevara nor
Malcolm X or any one of these.
. Justice, comes from Allah
And I wanted to be involved in this justice. I escaped
with myself to The Forgiving God. I didn’t know how
to say:
La Elaha Ella-Allah
There’s no God but Allah”
I just said: Oh God, I want to be a Muslim.
So I continued reading Surat
Arrahman, and I found in it such great
blessings from The Almighty. How can
we praise His Blessings?
I started crying. Not because I was upset, but due to all
these wonderful things I found., I found Islam! And
I’m a Muslim from 30 years now.
Actually I haven’t found Al-Islam, but Allah SWT has
guided me to it. There was no place in America to teach
it because in that time, Islam was still humble in there
and there were no masjids. So, I started reading books.
At first, I was transliterating Arabian letter into English,
,like saying “Astagfirollaha” than saying
‫أستغفر هللا‬
At the end, I went to an Islamic Center in
Washington, the biggest Masjid there. It
was a day of Eid Al-Fitr and I didn’t know
the meaning of “Eid”. Everyone was
shouting “Eid Mubarak”! I though there’re
saying “Eat Mubarak”. I didn’t get what
they meant, I thought they’re saying
“Blessed Food” !!
And that’s, my story with Islam.
Text source : Islam story web site…
www.Islamstory.com
Prepared by :-
Translation Campaign Team
www.facebook.com/translation.campain
2012