Bearing Witness

I was fortunate enough today to witness a man accept Islam. I turned up as usual to my regular Wednesday Qur'an study circle to find three strange men sitting at the back of the room. I smiled, mouthed hello and then promptly forgot about them. I continued to forget about them until the imam, Ajmal Masroor, called them over and explained to the rest of us that the middle of the three men was actually here to convert/revert to Islam.

Immediately I was excited. I'd seen recordings of declarations of faith and heard about them and have friends who've done it but in 27 years of hanging around Muslims I hadn't seen one myself! I took out my phone to make notes on the proceedings. In hindsight, the soon-to-be Muslim probably thought it was the height of rudeness for me to be texting on my phone during such a huge moment in his life. But that didn't occur to me and I wanted to remember what happened and prepared to note down extensive detail. I knew the procedure was quite straightforward but I was still surprised to see how simple it was in practice. My notes were as follows:

• State name.
• Confirm no coercion.
• Say the shahada* - repeated after imam.
• Welcome to Islam.

*This is the Islamic declaration of faith "ašhadu ʾan lā ʾilāha ʾilla (A)llāh, wa ʾašhadu ʾanna Muḥammada(n) rasūlu (A)llāh", which means: "I testify that there is no god except Allah, and I testify that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah."

And just like that, in the space of 20 seconds, the man had gone from an agnostic to a Muslim, from a stranger to a brother. We all gave him a hearty hug, congratulated him and welcomed a new believer to the fold. Shortly after which, the three men took their leave and departed. And that was that. (In the fullness of time, the man will receive a Certificate Of Conversion from the mosque as "proof" but that's something to hang on the wall, not an official or necessary document.)

Amazing to experience and amazing to be a part of and something I'll not forget soon. However, it did make me think about the profound nature of declaring faith. Words are easy to say but to internalise the meaning of declaring belief in God is a whole different ballgame and something that needs serious work and effort.

After the man had declared his faith, the imam pointed out that Islam and the Qur'an took 23 years to be revealed and perfected so while he should make an effort, he shouldn't rush to make changes to his life that would be immediately burdensome. A gradual approach, one step at a time will be more productive, have far more longevity and help to make the belief more concrete and will, in the fullness of time, save his soul.

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