['My Belief in Islam' is the title of a letter which Mr. Ali Ahmad Kund wrote to the Hedjaz Minister in London before proceeding to Hajj. He was a young Muslim journalist. ´My Belief in Islam` was published in Islamic Review, July 1933, Vol. 21, No. 7 pp. 221-227. We feel much pleasure in reproducing herewith an article written which was Published in the Islamic Review, October 1931, Vol. 19, No. 10, pp. 345-349--Editor]
I herewith ask for permission to go to the Hedjaz, and to obtain this permission, I think it necessary to give some particulars about myself.
I am 29 years old, born on 22nd April 1902, at Horsens in Denmark. As is the custom there in my country I was baptised in my infancy, and brought up as a Protestant Christian.
When I was 20 years old, I had finished my studies and became a journalist, and as such undertook some very interesting journeys. In 1922, I travelled in Poland, and at this time war was going on between Poland and Russia. From that place I was appointed correspondent of an important Danish paper - The Politiken of Copenhagen. In 1923, I went to Ireland, Scotland and Iceland, and in the summer of 1924, I passed on to Lapland as a representative of the papers THE NATIONALTIDENDE OF COPENHAGEN and the HELSINGI SONOMAT of Finland.
In the autumn of 1924, I proceeded to Morocco, where I wrote an account of the wars of Abdul-Karim. During the journey, I wrote a book too, but my present views are not at all in accordance with what I said in that book. The fact is that when I was in Morocco for the first time, I, like most other European journalists, was unable to understand much of what was really happening.
Still I was interested in the Oriental countries, and nearly throughout the year 1925, I travelled in Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Iraq and Persia, all the while writing articles for the newspaper THE NATIONALTIDENDE OF COPENHAGEN.
In 1926, I became the editor of a newspaper in Copenhagen, and in 1927 I married, and undertook with my wife a journey to Albania. From this year also begins my interest in Islam, although this interest, as you will see from the statement that follows, had to pass through some severe ordeals during the next tow years.
In 1927, I proceeded with my wife to Morocco to learn Arabic. Here a child was born to us - a girl, whos is now living with her mother in Denmark. I stayed about tow years in Morocco,after which we returned to Denmark. I stayed about two years in Morocco, after while my wife stayed with my parents at home. It was, now, my firm intention, uninfluenced by anyone else, to embrace the faith of Islam, and so I did in the Mosque in London. I signed a declaration wherein I simply stated that I believed in One God, and that I believed Muhammed(p.b.u.h) to be His Prophet. I had, by this time, studied literatures on Islam, known Ghazzali from what was found in Europe from the translations of his wrtings, and most of the great Islamic thinkers. But this journey in its later stages made me realize for the first time what Islam really was, and this was so very essential to my moral progress. For the first time, this journey made me believe in Islam with all my heart, where it has now sunk so deep that there is no possibility of its being ever shaken. Since then my religion alway comes before everything else, and my life, if God so wills, shall be devoted to the cause of this faith - an ambition which I value so much. Some details will give you an idea of what it was on this journey that shook my soul in such a way that I emerged out of it as an altogether changed man.
About the 15th of March 1930, I drove in my car from an Italian fort in Tripolitania to cover a distance of about 500 kilometers through the desert, before we could reach another fort. We lost our way completely, and for eleven days the boy and myself walked round and round in the desert in utter bewilderment. We had only a small quantity of water, and got nothing to eat with the exception of a porcupine. We were threatened by jackals and hyenas, and the last two days both of us were nearly mad. Then it dawned upon me what a pitiable creature man, stripped of his civilization, was. I developed during these eleven days a firm belief in the one Almighty Allah. I took a vow that I, if saved, would ask His help to work for what was right and never to waver in that. At that time I also saw that although we were gifted in one way or another, everything comes ultimately from Allah, and that we were to use His gifts only in His way, and then it might be that we should be happy.
I have been very happy from this moment on, although very few persons have had so many difficulties in life. I was taken prisoner by the Senoussis in the mountains. I told them, as it was true, that I was a Muslim. Having doubted for a while, which was only natural for them to do, they believed me. And then those "rebels" in the mountains, perhaps the best men I have ever met in my life, began to tell me teir own story, at the hearing of which I was very much moved, and felt myself ashamed of being a European. Believe me, though these people were in tattered rags, poor and half-starving, still they shared everything they had with me. What a difference between them and those brutal, nicely-clothed officers I had to meet later. I met the Italians after having parted with the Senoussis. They would face me to tell them where these Arabs were. On my refusal to do so, I was put into prison, and today I thank Allah for this imprisonment, for had I not been thus imprisoned, I would not have been able to tell Europe all about the sufferings of the Muslims in North Africa. After my release from this imprisonment I went to Egypt, and began writing in the papers about what I had seen. The Italian Government wanted to stop me, and as I was on my way to Cafra, where it was my intention to help people against the Italians, who were making preparations for a raid on their territory, I was arrested by the Egyptain Government,as I was misrepresented to them by the Italian Minister at Cairo as a Bolshevik. I could easily prove, however, that the allegation was false. I then asked the Egyptains to let me proceed to Cafra, but they refused. Eventually Cafra was taken by the Italians by a horrible operation in the beginning of the current year.
I went to Copenhagen, and wrote a series of articles on the real facts about the North African Colonization. At this time I also wrote my book "The Desert Burns" a copy of which I have sent to the Woking Mosque. It will also appear in other non-Danish languages in a few months´ time, for it is my intention that all the world should know the truth about this matter.
To give you an idea of this book, I tranlate below a few lines from its preface:-
"In the beginning of the year 1931, the Italians captured, with the help of Abyssinian troops they had imported into Cyrenaica, the oasis of Cafra in the southern part of Libyan Desert. A handful of Arabs, who during the last twenty years had marvellously defended their faith and homes against the Italian invasions for colonization, had at last, to give in, overhelmed by the Italian shower of mitrailleuse (machine gund) bullets, which a civilized nation uses, in these days, to subdue a reluctant people."
The rest of Europe knows nothing about this affair, excepting the message contained in a single telegram from Rome -"Our troops have succeeded in taking Cafra." And how can Europe know of it! Very few European who visit the Orient can speak the language of the People. The wires that are sent abroad are all inspired by Italian diplomacy, and they tell us only when a European is attacked by the "rebels" in the interior. But why do these attacks at all take place? Why the peaceful Arab population, whose religion teaches them patience, tolerance and simplicity - why should they turn rebels? It is of this that the book will tell.
The scene of the book is in Cyrenaice. It is this country which for the moment has the greatest interest. It is here that the Italians have introduced thousands of Christian Abyssinians from Eritrea. They were crosses on their breats, and this makes them excellent representatives of the white-man´s civilization.
The book is a challenge to the hollow claim, so often made on behalf of Europe that "We Europeans are called upon to teach the barbarians, culture and to have their countries as protectors."
The book was well received in Denmark, and beyond its frontiers too, and it is fervently hoped, however contrary the fact may prove, that it will awaken some interst in the rest of Europe. Even if Europe can only understand what Islam is, I shall have achieved much in my object.
The press comments on the book were as follows:-
The Politiken(Copenhagen):-
"Knud Holmboe is a Muslim, - a fact which should not frighten the reader. It is very easy to imagine a smart journalist who become a convert to Islam, while pursuing his journalistic aims, casting aside his religion as a cloak, to be used only, on ceremonial occasions, but in the case of Knud Holmboe such is not the case. Here the religion and the man is essentially one. He never doubts the truth of what he says. For him his Allah leads the path. This fact makes the book fascinating, and we cannot but believe what he says. We follow him on his way. We, no doubt, see the adoration of marabouts and sheikhs in North Africa, but, as knud Holmboe tells us, such practices are against the teachings of Islam, according to which only One can be ordered, and that is Allah."
The Goteberg Handels och Sjofartst idning Bmai(Sweden):-
" He is from the bottom of his heart convinced that Islam has a future, whereas Christianity has failed. If you ask him why he has become a Muslim, he gives the answer in the book. I believe, he says, that humanity can be happy if only it lives after what the Prophet Muhammed and Jesus preached. Christianity is full dogmas which I do not understand, neither do I understand the need for them.
Islam is life itself. Christianity will die because it has no foundation. Islam has been for ever and shall for ever exist. For a Muslim, progress, but in the total freedom of the soul from all sorts of slavery to the material world. This, knud Holmboe tells us, is Islam and we too, after reading his book, begin to doubt our progress through the so-called civilization."
I have tried here to give you an idea of the external causes of my transformation. The internal ones are far too difficult for me to be able to describe them. I can only tell you that my belief in Islam is firm, and, if God does not allow me to go astray, it shall never be shaken. For me there are two possibilities for mankind -(1) Atheism, as in Russia, where the machines are gods and where everything is sureto end in a great disaster, in spite of all the intellectual progress of her people - or(2) Islam, which, to me, is the simple faith in the One Almighty God and wherein the Quran tells us how to reach Heaven - the presence of this God.
I, therefore, firmly believe in the following:
1) In the One God, as described in Surah 112.
2) In our Sayyidina Muhammed as the last Prophet of God, and as one who received the Quran as revealed from God, the teachings of which, therefore, can make mankind happy if they only would try and follow them.
3) In the five prayers or concentrations on the Divinity, the observation of which will enable one to live a virtuous life.
4) In the prohibition of very kind of intoxicant; because God has given us the body as a seat for the soul, it is our duty to maintain its wholesomeness
5) In the institution of Hajj, which forces every man, however great and clever he may be in the eyes of the world, to go back to the original simplicity of life, which is so essential for the progress of the soul.
6) In all the Prophets raised by God. But the previous Books being tampered with by human hands, the Holy Quran is now the only and final guide for humanity.
All this I believe in, and it is my intention and solemn pledge to try my best to fulfill the commandments of God in my practical life, and, through the light that I may obtain through such obedience, to help the unhappy humanity to know the Truth.
Your Excellency, I have tried to explain in a few lines why I have become a Muslim. I hope that you, as a brother Muslim, will understand that for me Islam is a truth and serious truth.
The reason why I continue to be a journalist and an author is that thereby I shall be able to help my Islamic brethren in their sufferings.
Ali Ahmad Knud Holmboe
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