As a Doctor of Medicine, and a descendant of a French Catholic family, the very choice of my profession has given me a solid scientific culture which had prepared me very little for mystic life. Not that I did believe in God, but that the dogmas and rites of Christianity in general and of Catholicism in particular never permitted me to feel His presence. Thus my unitary sentiment for God forbade my accepting the dogma of the Trinity, and consequently of the Divinity of Jesus Christ. Without yet knowing Islam, I was already believing in the first part of the Kalimah - La ilaha illa-Allah (There is but One God), and in the verses of the Quran.

So, it was first of all for metaphysical reason that I adhered to Islam. Other reasons, too prompted me to do that. For instance, my refusal to accept Catholic priests, who, more or less, calim to possess on behalf of God the power of forgiving the sins of men.
Further, I could never admit the Catholic rite of communion, by means of the host (or holy bread), representing the body of Jesus Christ, a rite which seems to me to belong to totemistic practices of primitive peoples, where the body of the ancestral totem, the taboo of the living ones, had to be consumed after his death, in order better to assimilate his personality. Another point which moved me away from Christianity was the absolute silence which it maintains regarding bodily cleanliness, particularly before prayers, which has always seemed to me to be an outrage against God. For if He has given us a soul He has also given us a body, then we have no right to neglect. The same silence could be observed, and this time mixed with hostility with regard to the physiological life of the human being, whereas on this point Islam seemed to me to be the only religion in accord with human nature.

The essential and definite element of my conversion to Islam was the Quran I began to study it, before my conversion, with the critical spirit of Western intellectual, and I owe much to the magnificient work of Mr. Malek Bennabi, entitled Le Phenomene Coranique, which convinced me of its being divinely revealed. There are certain verses of this book, the Quran, revealed more than thirteen centuries ago, which teach exactly the same notions as the most modern scientific researches do. This definitely converted me and converted me to the second part of the Kalimah---Mohamed-ur-Rasulullah (Mohamed is the Messanger of God).

This was my reason for presenting myself on 20th February, 1953 at the Mosque in Paris, where I declared my faith in Islam and was registered there as a Muslim by the Mufti of the Paris Mosque, and was given the Islamic name of 'Ali Selman'.

I am very happy in my new faith, and proclaim once again:

"I bear witness that there is but one God, and I bear witness that Mohamed is God's servant and Messenger.

Ali Selman Benoist
(French)
Doctor of Medicine