*) Women at the Threshold of Islam

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Why I embraced Islam

I was brought up in the religion of the church of England, and hardly remember any time when Sunday was not English Sunday, a thing that is --or has become--almost an institution in this country. Also, it was a day when one was being constantly told not to do this thing, and not to do the other. One was serverely reprimanded for "being naughty on Sunday," as if it was worse to do wrong on a Sunday than any other day. In the morning, church was the first order of the day; and when I began to argue on certain points connected with the Christian doctrine, or to question its accuracy, not only was nobody able to answer any of my question, but I was told it was wrong to make inquires. I was told God had written the Bible; but when I asked, had He written it with a pen, where was the original document, and had anyone seen Him do so, such questions raised pious horror in the mind of my governess. It was not only dull, but extremely irksome for me to have to follow a religion which from its very root beliefs was so entirely illogical and impossible. Not only did I wish to love the God I worshipped, but I was extremely interested in Him, and eager to know more about Him as He really was. I could never reconcile the idea of an Almighty or All-Merciful God allowing His Son such an ignominious and shameful death as a means to save the world -- for the very fact of the crucifixion proved to me that such a God who, could do such a thing could be neither "Almighty" nor "All-Merciful." If He were Almighty, there was no need for Him to require the assistance from anyone else, human or divine, and if He were All-Merciful, He could not willingly allow a perfectly innocent person to suffer for the sins commited by other people who were guilty. Not only that, but I had only to look around me at the sinse and wrong going on in the world, to see that it had in no way been saved by the death of an innocent man; and on discussing the matter with people I found that half the people who professed to be Christians did not really believe all they were supposed to, but held to it, because it was so much easier not to change or to bother to thing for themselves. The Sunday afternoons were spent in my being obliged to learn the catechism or a hymn by heart. How much better would it have been had I been told some real and ennobling truth about my creator, than to be made to repeat in a parrot-like fashion the rules of a doctrine I did not believe in. I seemed to me to be the culminating points of the whole thing. I hated the words "Body and blood of Christ," even if in the Protestant faith they were only meant allegorically and in the Catholic Church. The idea of the sacraments worried me never be confirmed. Sunday evening we finished up with hymns, and to refuse to come and join in, and sign them, was considered most disobedient, only to be accepted with the alternative of going to bed if I couldn't behave like the rest. Thus Sunday was a long day that dragged wearily through, and it was such a strain--what with Sunday expressions, Sunday behaviour, Sunday occupations, hymn-singing and church--that it often ended in my behaving worse than on an ordinary weekday. The Bible I always heartily disliked--it gave me neither comfort, consolation, nor the smallest help whatever.
When I grew up I found it such a mass of contradictions, extraordinary fables and impossibilities, that one felt disgusted and saddened instead of being helped and comforted. Those who were supposed to be in a position to interpert it--clergymen, for instance--failed entirely when I questioned them concerning it. What, therefore, could be the use of a book that was so wrapt up in fable and fancy that no one could explain it? The Bible is the result of a collaboration of dozens of different authors. Science and geology prove that the Beginning, as described in Genesis, is an utter impossibility. We have also proof that King David never wrote the Psalms, and that various other parts of the Bible attributed to different people were not written by them. Thus then, since so many people have had the task of inventing the Bible, who is to be believed? The Holy Book of Islam--the Qura'n--on the contrary, has come to us through only one man, namely, the holy Prophet Muhammed. It has never been altered, twisted, paraphrased and transcribed as the Bible, but has remained true to its original copy. The Qura'n appealed to me. The doctrine of Islam appealed to me. These, then, are some of the reasons why I have embraced Islam, a religion that is comforting, uplifting, and sustaining, and why I have discarded one that has never, from the first word I learnt of it, ever inspired, encouraged, or uplifted me at all

Ameena Annie Spieget
An English Lady